Reports backed by photographs showing police and soldiers robbing transporters at gunpoint, often firing at trucks to add to the intimidation, continue to filter through from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). In the latest appeal for help from a fear-stricken driver, FTW was told how
soldiers pounced on a truck travelling north-west of Lubumbashi towards Kolwezi. The driver said he was seized on in broad daylight close to Likasi, a mid-way town that has become notorious for law enforcers turning criminal, particularly against truckers carrying US dollars to pay for road haulage fees.
In his message, passed on via WhatsApp, the driver pleads for help as he recounts how he was “involved in an incident that happened after Lubumbashi”. “It was this morning between 10am and 11am,” he continues. “Six soldiers came to my truck and took $900.” In one of the photos he attached to his message, a bullet hole shot through his window screen is clearly visible. In another, uniformed officials in helmets can be seen engaging with a truck, with one of the officers standing on the driver’s side of the horse as a colleague keeps guard by a motorbike parked next to the truck. The pictures resemble similar images published recently in the FTW of 1 March (#2333), showing clearly an official, in the same uniform seen in the most recent photos, clambering into a truck. The driver added that in another incident, a fellow driver had to escape to Buluo, a settlement east of Likasi, with law enforcers in hot pursuit, presumably after he managed to get away without having his dollars taken off him. The driver deplored the
conditions he and other drivers are expected to work in, especially in the vicinity of Likasi, where police and soldiers appear to have free rein in preying on trucks serving a main artery running through the copper belt in the south-eastern DRC. In the meantime, the violence and corruption that seem endemic in the mineralrich Katanga region remain unresolved, with transporters persistently complaining of adverse administration-related delays dogging the border crossing of Kasumbalesa, between Zambia and the DRC. Last year, congestion at the border caused a backup, running all the way south past the Zambian towns of Chililabombwe and Chingola. Drivers were forced to camp out on the side of the road, despite not having any amenities or access to food and water.
But whereas initial reports indicated that most of the congestioncausing delays stemmed from construction work at customs north of Kasumbalesa, a certification agent has rushed to the defence of the DRC. Robbie Forbes of Transcom Services said authorities are doing their best to improve services and has appealed for the enhanced collaboration of all concerned. “I have no doubt that their purpose is honourable and that they’re trying to add integrity to their service,” he said. He stressed that the harmonisation of longstanding border issues at Kasumbalesa is “a dual problem, and it will take efforts on both sides of the border to iron out problems”. Transporters in particular are hopeful that this will mean less robbery and more protection by police and soldiers on the road serving the mining hubs of Lubumbashi and Kolwezi.
Six soldiers came to my truck and took $900. – Driver
