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In 2004, Australian mining company Anvil Mining was digging silver & copper in Dikulushi, DRC. Locals accused Anvil of colluding with the presidential team who had links with businessmen, employing non-natives & not contributing to the improvement of the life of the local people
Consequently, on October 14, 2004 a small group of 10 men men took control over the city of Kilwa, eastern DRC, 50 kilometers away from Anvil controlled Dikulushi mine and declared the independence of Katanga province. Anvil Mining did not like this
The following day, the DRC army launched a heavy attack on the city, killing 73 people, more than 20 of them being summary executions. The army arbitrarily killed civilians, looted the city, raped women with many civilians dying weeks or months later from injuries
The small uprising in Kilwa had blocked Anvil’s access to its port on lake Mweru where it exported the silver and the copper of Dikulushi to Zambia for processing. Kilwa is the city from where were through the lake Mweru to Zambia for being processed
Seeing their business threatened by the events in Katanga province, Anvil used its own vehicles to transport DRC military's soldiers to Kilwa and later used the same vehicles to transport dead bodies and looted goods out of the city
Anvil knew that without their help, it would have taken days for the army to reach Kilwa from their base, but with Anvil’s vehicles it only took them half a day
The UN Mission in the DRC found Anvil guilty of logistically and financially supporting the army, military actions, supplying the army with drivers, trucks, rations, flying in troops on its chartered planes and having conducted an "industry-facilitated massacre"
After a military trial, the military prosecutor indicated that there was "insufficient evidence of intent to establish that Anvil Mining or its employees had been complicit in war crimes". Long story short, Anvil got away with it
This is not dissimilar to what's currently happening in Xolobeni, Eastern Cape, again with an Australian mining company. But that's another story
