Transporters working on the North-South Corridor (NSC) in and out of the Copperbelt area shared by Zambia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) should proceed with extreme caution at night directly north of Kasumbalesa.
This warning comes after the Transit Assistance Bureau (“Transist”) received reports of attacks on trucks on the N1 north of Whiskey Check Point, the control point north of the DRC’s border crossing with Zambia.
According to Transist gangs started blocking the road and looting drivers.
Criminal activity on the important supply line into Haut Katanga Province in the south-eastern DRC is said to spark up late in the afternoon and reach a peak at night.
“Please warn your drivers to be alert and proceed with caution,” Transist said.
News of the attacks in the vicinity of Whiskey comes exactly one day after two more incidents of cargo crime involving copper theft were reported on the NSC.
It has brought to four the number of hits on trucks travelling on the corridor in two weeks.
The most recent incident happened earlier this week when assailants boarded a rig travelling south from Kolwezi on the route towards Lubumbashi and Kasumbalesa.
They slashed the truck’s cargo ropes and threw copper plates onto the side of the road where they were picked up by a vehicle following the targeted truck.