Four Chinese and a South Korean were kidnapped from a construction site near a gold mine in southern DRC on Monday. Three men, including the owner of the mine, were also kidnapped, but neither group’s whereabouts is known. The victims, who are from China, were members of a construction company called Enkbim Construction Co. and officials at the company told Reuters that they were employees of a subcontractor with Enkbim.
The mine is in North Kivu province, close to the town of Minova, which was stormed by Congolese rebels in November, and forced to evacuate after fleeing into neighboring Rwanda. The government has yet to identify a group responsible for Monday’s kidnapping and, along with the attacks in the province, has blamed them on an insurgency in eastern DRC, where conflicts between rival armed groups have left hundreds of thousands dead over the past decade.
Scheduled Chinese New Year celebrations do not take place in 2017 but the arrival of the new year is held on Tuesday. However, The New York Times reported that the nation is expected to observe a “Silk Road Ceremony” at a Chinese consulate in Kinshasa, with first families in China, China’s DRC president, Joseph Kabila, and South Korean ambassador to the DRC, Itte Yong-goo, among those taking part.
Read the full story at Reuters.
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