Constitutional revision announced; journalists killed

General

State of siege extended despite protests

On 19th September 2024, the state of siege in the two border regions was extended for the 82nd time. Adopted in 2021, the decree establishing the state of siege in the North-Kivu and Ituri regions was adopted mainly to curb violence. It gives the provincial military authorities operating in these two regions the authority to implement several measures, including conducting day and night searches in people’s homes, prohibiting meetings and publications that they deem likely to excite or undermine public order, or arresting any person implicated in disruptions of peace and public order. In addition, the criminal jurisdiction of civil courts is devolved to military courts. The extension was voted on without debate. According to Tigere Chagutah, Regional Director at Amnesty International, the multiple extensions of the state of siege do not meet the DRC's Constitution and its international human rights obligations. Avocats Sans Frontières documented the serious consequences of the state of siege for the population's ability to access justice and for the ability of justice officials to combat impunity for international crimes.

Civil society actors and citizens are calling for an end to the state of siege, stressing its inability to guarantee lasting security. The measure has not proved effective. According to the Kivu Security Barometer, 5,458 people lost their lives in the first two years following its promulgation. Jean-Bosco Lalo, president of the national office of the Conseil de l'apostolat des laïcs catholiques du Congo (CALCC) and spokesman for the Forces vives de la RDC, also wants the state of siege, which he describes as a ‘scam’, to be lifted. For journalist and rights activist Socrate Nsimba, it is high time to put an end to this state of siege and to adopt an approach based on respect for human rights, in order to restore security.

As the international community also started to express reservations about the lack of tangible results and the high humanitarian cost, citizen mobilisation against the state of siege gained momentum, with peaceful demonstrations, sit-ins and campaigns on social networks. Unfortunately, civil society is being repressed on the very basis of the Ordinance on the state of siege, which allows the military authorities to ban meetings considered “likely to undermine public order”, to arrest anyone for “disturbing public order” and to try civilians in military courts.

On 7th and 8th October 2024, residents and shopkeepers of Béni stayed at home to protest against the state of siege currently in force.

Shabani Loswire, from the group Synergie des mouvements citoyens et groupes de pression underlines that “since the advent of the state of siege, civic space has been restricted, and it is enough to criticise the military's management to be arrested or associated with a criminal. Citizens are brutally arrested and detained without trial. That's why we decided, once again, that we had to demonstrate locally in Béni so that Kinshasa could take appropriate measures”.

Planned revision of the Constitution?

On 23rd October 2023, during an address to his supporters in Lingala, President Tshisekedi accused the Constitution of having been ‘drafted abroad and by foreigners’ and of containing ‘weaknesses’ and not being adapted to the realities of the country. He reaffirmed his intention to set up, by decree, an interdisciplinary commission of experts to study the possibility of drafting a new Constitution as early as 2025. In a circular sent to the local executives of the ruling Union pour la démocratie et le progrès social (UDPS), the party’s leaders were called on to ‘mobilise and raise awareness among the party's grassroots in order to impress upon the militants the merits’ of revising the Constitution. For its part, the opposition believes that this is above all an attempt to get round the two-year term limit.

The activist Jean-Claude Katende, of the African Association for the Defence of Human Rights (Asadho) asks why the Constitution should be changed to give power for many years to people who have not yet managed to convince after more than five years in power.

For Prince Epenge, spokesman for the opposition platform Lamuka, this priority of the President is detrimental to the real priority issues that need to be resolved, such as the war tearing the east of the country apart or the extreme poverty that is suffocating millions of Congolese.

Expression

Two journalists arrested

On 7th October 2024, journalists Patrick Lokala and reporter Érasme Kasongo Kalenga were separately arrested. Lokala, a reporter at the privately owned news site Télé News RDC, was arrested after four judicial police officers broke into his home in Kinshasa. The armed men released tear gas, causing his youngest son to faint and be rushed to hospital. He was placed under provisional arrest after being questioned for two hours foralleged contempt of court, forgery, and propagation of false rumours in connection with his criticism of the DRC’s judiciary. CPJ reports that Justice Minister Constant Mutamba ordered the arrest of the officers involved after a video showing the police officer’s harsh treatment of Lokala circulated on Twitter.

Érasme Kasongo was arrested by three police officers who took him to prison in Kipushi, a town in Haut-Katanga province, local journalists Paul Sampwe and Augustin Lumbu told CPJ. Kasongo was detained for alleged defamation for reading a press release on air about alleged misappropriation of mining royalties by the Kyona Ngoie chiefdom. On 7th October 2024, the Katanga section of the Union nationale de la presse congolaise (UNPC-KATANGA) demanded his immediate release, which took place the next day.

Two journalists killed in North Kivu

On 27th September 2024, journalist Edmond Bathi, coordinator of Radio Maria, a Catholic radio station broadcasting in Goma, the capital of North Kivu province, was shot several times as he walked along the road leading to his home. Military intelligence presented two alleged murderers to the press on 30th September 2024. Dieme Bauma, a tricycle driver in the town of Goma, confessed, saying that he had operated with a certain Elisha Hemedi alias Mamadou, because of a dispute involving the deceased Edmond Bahati. The spokesman for the 34th military region, Lieutenant-Colonel Guillaume Njike Kaiko, expressed the commitment of the authorities, who are managing the province of North Kivu under a state of siege, to seeing this crime punished.

On 29th October 2024, M23 rebels looted the Mpety community radio station’s headquarters, 180 kilometres west of the city of Goma in the province of North Kivu. The station’s director Barthélémy Bakangana was able to flee but radio journalist Yoshua Kambere Machozi was arrested by members of the M23. He was found dead eight days later, according to information collected by Reporters Without Borders.

Peaceful Assembly

Teachers on strike in North Kivu

By 16th September 2024, in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo, the school year had not yet started in North Kivu, as the teachers of state-run primary schools were on strike.

Opposition protests against political prisoners

On 25th September 2024, as the Democratic Republic of Congo seeks a seat on the UN Human Rights Council, hundreds of political opponents and NGO activists demonstrated in Kinshasa to demand the release of those they consider to be ‘political prisoners and prisoners of conscience’, and to denounce the shrinking democratic space in the country.