The tension that developed around a wildcat strike of long-distance truck drivers at the Kasumbalesa border post between Zambia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) appears to be fast deteriorating, with reports coming through of heavy-handedness on both sides of the border.
In Lubumbashi, capital of Haut Katanga province in the Congo, police have been firing what looks like smoke grenades or teargas at gathering crowds.
And in Zambia, immediately south of the border, police and soldiers are also said to be using force to supress protestors that are venting anger at the treatment of cross-border drivers in the DRC.
In footage received from somewhere in the DRC, presumably Lubumbashi, a mob chased down a man trying to get away, proceeding to beat and kick him while a police Land Cruiser with officers in the back looked on, unresponsive.
While it’s clear that the Copperbelt route from Kasumbalesa should be avoided by transporters at the moment, it remains to be seen if the governments on both sides of the border are going to listen to the demands of drivers.
Following failed attempts by ministers and high-ranking government officials to address security concerns such as violent bribery in the DRC, drivers serving the DRC’s copper-mining areas have insisted that the presidents of both countries intervene.
Not only has this not happened, but no word from either Kinshasa or Lusaka has been received that DRC President Felix Tshisekedi and his Zambian counterpart, Hakainde Hichilema, will acquiesce.
Meanwhile, as the impasse drags on, so is the impact on supply chain into the south-eastern DRC, a land-locked part of the country that relies on road freight imports for almost everything needed and consumed in provinces likes Haut Katanga and the neighbouring Lualaba, another copper-mining province.
Similarly, the situation at Kasumbalesa is also constraining the outflow of raw minerals from these areas.
Earlier today, the Federation of East and Southern African Road Transport Associations said the build-up of trucks south of the border was stretching some 80 kilometres south of Kasumbalesa.
Yesterday and the day before, the build-up almost reached Chingola about 45 kilometres south of the border.
Now it’s almost double where the truck blockade of Kasumbalesa was on Monday.
With no real effort from both the governments of Zambia and the DRC about long-standing grievances over violent criminality aimed at drivers, open revolt and armed resistance by authorities now seems like the only certainty.
