Bukavu – Four gunmen robbed two gold dealers in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, killing two soldiers as they fled, while two of the thieves were shot dead, the Kamituga mayor said on Monday.
The thieves made off with a “large amount of money” in the heist on Sunday, Alexandre Bundya told AFP, adding that residents joined the soldiers in the chase.
The two surviving “bandits” were still at large on Monday, and their haul has not been found, the mayor said, reached by telephone from the South Kivu capital Bukavu.
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Kamituga, a large city in South Kivu, has some 300 purchasing counters where mainly small-scale or artisanal miners sell gold extracted from dangerous makeshift mines.
DR Congo boasts abundant mineral wealth including gold, copper, coltan and cobalt.
Yet a large majority of the population lives on less than $1.90 a day, the international poverty rate, according to the World Bank.
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Source: AFP
Picture: Getty Images
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