Three Chinese nationals have gone missing from a gold mining area in the DR Congo's conflict-ridden eastern Ituri province, with military sources saying Monday they may have been abducted.
Lieutenant Gilles Ngongo said Congolese soldiers were searching the area.
The three missing men, working in the gold sector where China is heavily invested, may have been abducted by CODECO militiamen, Ngongo said.
CODECO — for Cooperative for the Development of the Congo — is an armed political-religious sect that claims to defend the Lendu ethnic group.
It is one of more 120 armed groups that roam eastern DR Congo, many of them a legacy of bloody wars more than a quarter of a century ago.
The Lendu, mainly farmers, have been in historic conflict with the Hema community who are predominantly herders.
