Congo and Zambia experts begins talk over deadly border conflict

Congolese and Zambian experts went into talks on August 11 in DR Congo's southeastern mineral hub of Lubumbashi over a deadly border conflict that erupted in March, according to a news report by The Citizen.

Fighting broke out after Zambian soldiers occupied two villages in the DRC's Tanganyika province, leaving one soldier dead on each side.

"I remain convinced that the two delegations will not fail to put our peoples'interests first," said Jacques Kyabula, governor of the neighboring Haut Katanga province hosting the five days of talks.

A Haut-Katanga official has said that the Zambian troops had not left the country but moved to within three kilometers (two miles) of the border.

"Our soldiers who wanted to redeploy in the area were taken hostage for more than three hours by Zambian troops," he alleged.

Last Thursday the Congolese government announced that the Zambian troops had withdrawn from the villages after mediation by the regional Southern African Development Community.

A treaty signed in 1989 by DR Congo and Zambia resolved a dispute inherited from the colonial era concerning the delimitation of land and lake borders between Lake Mweru and Lake Tanganyika, a distance of about 200 kilometers (125 miles).

Border clashes broke out nonetheless between the Zambian and Congolesearmies in 1996, in 2006 and in September 2016. The disputed area is easily accessible from the Zambian side, but on the Congolese side, access is made difficult by a swamp.