DRC resumes executions; civic space restrictions of all sorts

General

On 17th June 2024, six months after the general elections held on 20th December 2023, the Catholic and Protestant churches presented the report on their joint electoral mission in Kinshasa. The report strongly criticises the electoral process and notes that the corrective measures requested have yet to be implemented. Didi Manara Linga, second vice-president of the Independent National Electoral Commission (CENI), lamented that the report was “focused on the difficulties” and not on the efforts made by CENI. A few days later, on 25th July 2024, the Carter Center released its own final report from its international electoral observation mission. It notes the improvements from the previous electoral cycle, but concludes that the process fell short of meeting key international commitments for democratic elections.

On 30th July 2024, Congolese Minister of Foreign Affairs Thérèse Kayikwamba Wagner and her Rwandan counterpart Nduhungirehe agreed to a ceasefire between the “parties to the conflict in east” during a high-level meeting in Luanda, Angola. The ceasefire was due to start on 4th August. However, as Rwandan-backed M23 were not signatories to the accord, fighting between the Congolese army and M23 resumed. Between November 2023 and August 2024, the area controlled by the M23 expanded by more than 70%, according to the latest report by United Nations experts on the DRC.

DRC resumes executions

In a circular signed on 13th March 2024, the Minister of Justice, Rose Mutombo, notified the judicial authorities of the government’s decision to resume executions for a series of crimes. Félix Tshisekedi suspended the moratorium that had been signed by Joseph Kabila in 2003, resuming executions, in particular of military personnel found guilty of treason and of ‘urban banditry resulting in the death of civilians’. The decision came shortly after new offensives by the M23 rebels, supported by the Rwandan army in the Goma region. A de facto abolitionist for two decades, the government hopes this will provide an ‘electroshock’ in response to the inextricable security situation in the east of the country.

Amnesty International strongly condemned this decision, considering it “a huge step backwards for the country and a further sign that the Tshisekedi administration is backtracking on its commitment to respect human rights”. According to the organisation, the move means that many innocent people are now at risk of execution, and is even more alarming as the justice system is notoriously inefficient and ineffective, and due to the ongoing crackdown on political opponents, human rights activists and journalists.

A statement by 50 Congolese civil society actors and international human rights organisations working in the DRC also strongly condemned the measure, questioning its domestic and international legality and adding that no empirical evidence shows that the death penalty is effective in curbing violence, contrary to the arguments put forward by the Congolese authorities.

Ensemble contre la peine de mort (ECPM), an international abolitionist group, also criticised the move, warning that the majority of the over 800 death row prisoners as of the beginning of 2024 are at risk of execution. CPJ and ECPM also denounce the numerous ‘grouped’ death sentences against military personnel handed down. Many, including the President, agree that the justice system is dysfunctional in Congo.

Additionally, according to Fred Bauma, the director of the Congolese think tank Ebuteli, the government seems to use a rather expansive definition of treason and has recently been arresting critics of even the mildest sort, causing fear of the immediate effect of the death penalty.

On 3rd July 2024, 25 soldiers were sentenced to death after a trial that lasted one day. The 31 defendants, 27 soldiers and 4 civilian women - wives of soldiers - appeared in flagrante delicto (immediate appearance) before the military tribunal of the garrison of Butembo in North Kivu, sitting in a mobile court near the front line, in the village of Alimbongo. Accused of ‘fleeing in the face of the enemy’ during recent fighting against M23 rebels, 25 soldiers were sentenced to death.

According to Le Monde, from July to mid-September 2024, more than 130 death sentences have been handed down to soldiers in the east of the country for ‘treason’, ‘fleeing in the face of the enemy’, ‘violating orders’ and ‘dissipating ammunition’. However, none of these sentences resulted in an execution.

Attempted coup

On 19th May 2024, early in the morning, about 50 men in fatigues attacked the home of Vital Kamerhe, a government minister. After a fight with his guards, the attackers moved on to the Palais de la Nation, the official residence of the President, empty at that hour. Footage shows a little known opposition figure, Christian Malanga, and his cronies waving flags of Zaire, the former name of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Better known in US diaspora circles, Malanga has always presented himself as the leader of a group he calls the United Congolese Party (UCP). Congolese security forces killed Malanga in unclear circumstances hours after he seized the Palais de la Nation. By dawn it was over and the President was unharmed. The security forces said they arrested dozens of people, including three Americans and a British man. According to the Economist, many questions remain as to how to qualify this event, and the motives behind it.

Human Rights Watch called on the DRC government to ensure that those who took part in the attempted coup are prosecuted in a fair trial after thorough and impartial investigations. This call has not been heard. Rights defenders highlighted the ‘opacity’ surrounding the interrogations carried out during the investigation.

Post coup: military trial sentences participants to death

The coup trial in Kinshasa’s Ndolo military prison began in June, after a period of several weeks in which the defendants were held incommunicado. Called before the bar, many testified to having been tortured by military intelligence agents in detention. NPR reports that the US citizens also testified that their statements had been extracted under duress, and without the presence of an interpreter. But the court dismissed this defence, and it didn't directly respond to arguments by defence lawyers that testimony extracted under torture is illegitimate. In the end, the trial shed little light on the motives of the members of the operation - which was clearly ill-prepared to overthrow a regime - and its possible sponsors. The trial also offers no explanation of the security lapses that allowed armed men to move freely in the capital's most sensitive district.

On 13th September 2024, the Kinshasa military court found every member of the alleged attacking group - including foreign nationals - guilty on all counts and sentenced them to death. The Executive Secretary of the CSO Voice of the Voiceless called these sentences extreme, and recalls that many other sentences were available.

It created a diplomatic stir as the Belgian citizen Jean-Jacques Wondo was also condemned. Jean-Jacques Wondo is a Belgian national who did not take part in the attack, but who was condemned to death for allegedly being the “intellectual author” of the events. A former advisor to the Congolese secret service and a well-known researcher on political and security issues in Africa’s Great Lakes region, the authorities accuse him of wiping his telephone the day after the attack and of having maintained contact with Malanga through an intermediary. He, as well as all the other defendants, fiercely contested the claim. According to Human Rights Watch, the only evidence known to have been presented against Wondo is a 2016 photo of him and Christian Malanga, the US-based opponent of the Congolese government who was killed during the botched coup. The NGO denounces that an arrest based only on an eight year old photo is just not credible. The lawyers filed an appeal against the decision.

UPR review

Ahead of DRC’s Universal Periodic Review at the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) on 5th November 2024, civil society organisations made several recommendations pertaining to civic space. In its submission, CIVICUS and the Ligue des Droits de la Personne dans la Région des Grands Lacs (LDGL) observed that the DRC government did not implement 20 recommendations relating to civic space from the past UPR cycle and has only partly implemented eight recommendations. CIVICUS and LDGL expressed concern regarding the arbitrary arrests, killings, intimidation and judicial harassment of human rights defenders and journalists. The submission also points to the civic space violations committed under the state of siege in eastern DRC, in particular regarding the right to peaceful assembly, including the indiscriminate killings of protesters, and the prosecution of protesters and activists before military courts. The Committee to Protect Journalists recommended among others that the DRC ensures prompt and thorough investigations into the killing, torture and ill-treatment of journalists and takes measures to end arbitrary arrest and detention of journalists. The UPR will be webcast live on 5th November 2024.

Association

Abolition of form for CSOs, uncertainty follows

In a press release issued on 20th June 2024, the Minister of Justice, Constant Mutamba, abolished the Folio 92, also known as F92, a form previously given to applicants for legal personality as an acknowledgement of receipt. In accordance with the law, holders of the F92 could consider that the legal personality applied for was automatically acquired if the Ministry did not issue a decision in favour of the application within six months. In his press release, the Minister of Justice gave non-profit associations that do not yet have the legal personality, including churches, one month to submit a new application for legal status. This decision is presented as part of several initiatives designed to improve the administration of justice in the country.

The Centre for Research and Studies on the Rule of Law in Africa (CREEDA) described the abolition of Folio 92 by the Minister of Justice as a breach of the law as it endangers the freedom of association. Similarly, the Center for Research and Documentation on Human Rights (CREDDHO) is of the opinion that it is a retroact on acquired rights and that this will hamper the functioning and legitimacy of associations.

A lot of uncertainty remains: What happens to the F92 issued before the date of cancellation of this official document? How much does it cost to obtain legal personality?

A month later, on 23rd July 2024, during a briefing, the Minister of Justice said that the abolition of the F92 significantly increased the administrative revenue of the Ministry of Justice.

Two HRDs detained for criticising state of siege

Jack Sinzahera and Gloire Saasita, two human rights defenders who held a news conference to criticise the state of siege in the eastern provinces, were arrested on 1st August 2024. A state of siege has been in force in the North-Kivu and Ituri regions since 2021. It gives the provincial military authorities operating in these two regions the authority to implement several measures. Jack Sinzahera, 35, is a member of the citizens’ movement Amka Congo (Wake up Congo), and a longtime activist and campaigner who advocates lifting the “state of siege”. Gloire Saasita, 27, is a member of the Génération Positive citizens’ movement, which fights for the defence of human rights in Congo.

On 1st August 2024, Sinzahera and Saasita were in the basketball stadium of Goma’s Institut Supérieur de Commerce giving interviews to journalists when men in civilian clothes approached them. The activists interviewed said they recognized the men as being from the Goma intelligence police, known as P2. A family member and a human rights defender based in Kinshasa told Human Rights Watch that on 10th August 2024 the two activists were transferred to the General Directorate of Intelligence (Direction Générale des Renseignements) in Kinshasa. The families said the authorities have not told them the reason for the arrests. On 22nd August 2024, neither had been taken before a judge, which Congolese law requires within 48 hours of an arrest. Human Rights Watch requested their immediate release and the end of using the ‘state of siege’ to crack down on the rights to free expression and association.

Abduction of human rights defender

On 17th May 2024, Sengha, a founder of the movement Citizen Awareness (Vigilance Citoyenne), along with Robert Bunda and Chadrack Tshadio, were abducted in the country’s capital by unidentified men, including some wearing balaclavas and police uniforms and bearing arms. Two of the abducted persons are members of Tolembi Pasi (“We are done with suffering” in Lingala), which campaigns against social injustice and high living costs and had just attended a meeting to promote social and economic rights and citizen control in the country. Sengha has long been known as an activist working to advance social justice in Congo. In May 2023, she announced that she had joined the political party Envol (“Take-Off”). Robert Bunda is an IT specialist on Gloria Sengha's team, and Chadrack Tshadio is a friend of Robert Bunda who had simply helped to find the venue for the meeting but does not belong to the group.

The assailants forced them into a black SUV with no licence plate and drove away. After their abduction, there was no news about their whereabouts and rights groups such as “La Voix des sans voix” called for their immediate release. Bunda and Tshadio were located in police custody on 20th May 2024. On 20th May 2024, Chadrack Tshadio was released, while Robert Bunda was transferred to the National Intelligence Agency, without his family being informed.

After being held for 40 days by the National Intelligence Agency, Gloria Sengha was released on 4th July 2024, and has not been the subject of any legal proceedings.

Assembly

LUCHA activists arrested during protests

On 3rd February 2024, security forces in plain clothes arrested four activists of the Lutte pour le Changement (LUCHA) movement and three others during a protest in Kinshasa organised by Dynamique des mouvements citoyens congolais to mark the 600th day of occupation of Bunagana in North Kivu by the M23 armed rebel group. While LUCHA activists Jean-Paul Lualaba and Crispin Tshiya, along with a driver, a photographer and a student, were released the following day, well-known LUCHA activists Fred Bauma and Bienvenu Matumo remained detained at the notorious 3Z facility of the National Intelligence Agency (ANR) in Kinshasa until their release on 5th February 2024. The two activists, who were subjected to threats and physical violence while in detention, were only released after being forced to make a statement justifying their arbitrary detention.

Fred Bauma and Bienvenu Matumo are both long-time Lucha activists. Bauma now heads the Congolese research institute Ebuteli, while Matumo is pursuing his doctorate in France and was staying in Kinshasa for his research. They claim to have been questioned about a meeting of civil society with which opponents had been associated last January. This was before the final results of the presidential election were announced.

Jean-Claude Katende, President of the Congolese Human Rights Association (ASADHO), denounces this repression. According to him, citizens who have done nothing other than respond to the call of the President of the Republic to mobilise against Rwanda are being arrested. The fact that they are being denied access to their families and to a lawyer puts them at risk, especially knowing how the ANR operates.

On 27th February 2024, LUCHA activists were again arrested during a peaceful demonstration in the town of Kindu, in the Maniema province. The LUCHA activists were demanding the release of their imprisoned members. According to Wickot Wakandwa, spokesman for the governor of Maniema province, contacted by RFI, the demonstration was not authorised by Kindu town hall.

Journalists arrested during protest for press freedom

On 13th February 2024, as local journalists were demonstrating in defence of press freedom in Mbandaka in the Equateur province, 21 of them were arrested by members of the National Intelligence Agency (ANR) and were held arbitrarily at the ANR’s local headquarters for several hours before being released. They had been demonstrating particularly in support of Mimi Etaka, the provincial director of the national radio and TV broadcast RTNC, who had been the victim of a physical attack on Governor Bolumbu’s orders eight days earlier.

Protests against conflict and insecurity in Eastern DRC

The United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO) and the East African Community Regional Force deployed in the East DRC face strong criticism from the government and the Congolese public, who accused them of being ineffective in protecting civilians or in supporting peace in the region. At the request of President Tshisekedi, the UN Security Council in December 2023 agreed to begin a gradual withdrawal of MONUSCO, to be completed by the end of 2024.

According to data collected by the Africa Center for Strategic Studies, documented disinformation campaigns are increasing. In the DRC, “pressure groups” have been recruited by politicians to spread online disinformation to incite anti-UN mission (MONUSCO) sentiment. These false conspiracies—including claims that the UN was supporting and selling weapons to armed rebel groups—sparked violent protests in 2022 that resulted in the deaths of 5 peacekeepers and over 30 protesters who clashed outside a MONUSCO base.

The targets are Western chancelleries and MONUSCO, the UN mission. According to the managing editor of Jeune Afrique, the demonstrators are young people who belong to the so-called ‘patriotic’ nebula that revolves around the UDPS, the party of President Félix Tshisekedi and their aim is to denounce what they describe as ‘complicity’ between the international community, M23 and Rwanda.

Some of these protests were peaceful, others saw police intervention:

● On 11th February 2024, around a hundred demonstrators gathered near the American, Chinese and Portuguese embassies in Kinshasa, not far from MONUSCO headquarters, asking the chancelleries to “act or leave” and to take stronger action against Rwanda. Several MONUSCO vehicles were burnt. Demonstrators were stopped by police at the entrance to Avenue des Aviateurs, which houses these diplomatic representations. They denounced what they saw as the international community's passivity in the face of the crisis in the east of the country. In the weeks before, clashes around the town of Goma in North Kivu province resumed between the Congolese armed forces and the M23 rebels.

● On 12th February 2024, new demonstrations took place in Kinshasa against Western diplomatic representations and MONUSCO. The protesters are expressing their frustration at what they perceive as international indifference towards the eastern DRC, where the army and M23 are fighting. The police used tear gas to stop and disperse the demonstrators.

● On 15th February 2024, a demonstration against the war in the east and to demand diplomatic sanctions from Kinshasa took place in Bukavu, the capital of South Kivu province. In a memo handed to interim governor Marc Malago, the demonstrators expressed regret that the Congolese government had spoken of an imminent end to the war but was maintaining diplomatic relations with various states. Adrien Zawadi, president of civil society in South Kivu, said: “For the umpteenth time, we demand and call on the President of the Republic to immediately withdraw our country from the East Africa Community and from La Francophonie, and to immediately close our borders with Rwanda and Uganda until further notice”.

● On 19th February, in Goma, several dozen demonstrators gathered to denounce the support of Western countries for Rwanda. The country is accused of intervening militarily on Congolese soil with the M23 rebels. The United States and France are in the firing line. The demonstrators burned several flags, including those of the United States and France. Patrick Ricky Paluku, of the Veranda Mutsanga pressure group, denounced that these foreign powers invest in Rwanda. Félicien Tumusifu of the citizens' movement “La voix des marginalisés” also wanted to express their opposition to any future negotiations between the government and the M23 rebels.

● On 4th March 2024, in Goma, around ten demonstrators were briefly arrested before being released a few hours later. They were marching against tax increases and for the return of peace to North Kivu. They are warning the local authorities about harassment by armed men in a town where prices have risen and they carry banners accusing Rwanda of fueling the war.

● On 8th March 2024, women held a symbolic day of mourning in the streets of Bukavu to call for an end to the war in the neighbouring province of North Kivu, which is also affecting South Kivu. They ask the international community to take concrete sanctions against aggressor countries and the DRC to fight against impunity.

● On 14th April 2024, in the village of Turunga, on the outskirts of Goma, demonstrators erected barricades and threw stones onto the road in reaction to the death of a young man from the locality, who was murdered during an armed robbery. He had allegedly refused to give his telephone to a soldier, the presumed perpetrator of the crime, who has since been apprehended by the police. Residents denounced the explosion of insecurity in and around the town of Goma, that is encircled by the M23, as well as the ineffectiveness of the security services. Jean Claude Mambo Kawaya, president of civil society in Nyiragongo territory, is calling for a “mobile public hearing” to deter criminals.

EXPRESSION

Renowned journalist Stanis Bujakera convicted

After spending six months in pre-trial detention, on 18th March 2024, the court of Kinshasa-Gomba found the journalist Bujakera guilty on various charges and sentenced him to six months in prison. As reported previously on the Monitor, renowned journalist Stanis Bujakera Tshiamala, deputy director of news site actualité.cd and correspondent for Jeune Afrique and Reuters, was detained on 8th September 2023 about an article published by Jeune Afrique on 31st August 2023, alleging that a confidential memo by the ANR claims that military intelligence officers were implicated in the kidnapping and murder of Chérubin Okende Senga, a former minister and spokesperson for the political opposition party Ensemble pour la République. Although the article did not name Bujakera as the author, he was charged with ‘spreading false information’ and ‘forgery and falsification of false seals’, among other charges. Two investigations by Reporters without Borders and the Congo Hold-Up media consortium demonstrated that the prosecution’s claims that Bujakera forged and then shared the memo lacked evidence and contained a sham expert report with technically impossible and fallacious findings, while also being full of inconsistencies. During the investigation of his case, all requests for his provisional release submitted by his lawyers were systematically rejected by the High Court of Gombe. On 8th March 2024, the indictments of the Prosecutor Serge Bashonga requested 20 years of penal servitude against Bujakera. On 18th March 2024, the court of Kinshasa-Gomba found Bujakera guilty of ‘counterfeiting’, ‘forgery’, ‘propagation of false rumours’ and ‘transmission of an erroneous message’, and sentenced him to six months in prison and a fine of 1 million Congolese francs (approx. US$360). The prosecution did not appeal and Bukajera was released the next day as he had already served the equivalent of his sentence. Bujakera now lives in the United States. Human Rights Watch asks the Congolese authorities to set aside the conviction.

Media regulator stifles reporting on the conflict

On 23rd February 2024, the CSAC issued a directive requesting the media not to broadcast debates on Congolese army operations without the presence of at least one “expert on the matter.” It also requested journalists to avoid radio phone-ins discussing the topic and interviewing “negative forces,” a term that Human Rights Watch qualifies as a vague and unclear term that leaves the door open to arbitrary prohibitions.

On 4th April 2024, the CSAC recommended that media outlets should no longer “broadcast information relating to the rebellion in eastern DRC without referring to official [government] sources.” The profession expressed its outrage and denounced what they call the “subservience and lack of independence of the official regulatory body”.

Journalists attacked; detained

● On 5th February 2024, Mimi Etaka, the provincial director of the national radio and TV broadcast RTNC, was the victim of a physical attack on Governor Bolumbu’s orders. Bolumbu forced his way into RTNC’s local headquarters accompanied by bodyguards, whom he ordered to beat Etaka for refusing to broadcast three of his decrees appointing new members to his provincial government. Etaka had nonetheless agreed to broadcast the decrees after the news show earlier in the day, albeit without interrupting the show as requested. Despite her attempts to defend herself, the bodyguards tore her clothes off and ransacked RTNC’s premises.

● On 23rd February 2024, the journalist Masand Mafuta, general director of the Culture Congo news website, was detained by at least six police officers in Kinshasa, while he was reporting in Matonge. He also saw his camera, dictaphone and telephone, as well as around US$300 in cash confiscated. They slapped him in the face and then released him the same day.

● On 27th February 2024, journalist Lucien Lyenda was attacked by three DRC armed forces soldiers while reporting on a demonstration against worsening security in the town of Kirungu in the Moba Territory of Tanganyika province. One solider held Lyenda by the neck, the other two punched him and hit him with rifles butts, he told CPJ.

● On 3rd May 2024, journalist and Radio Communautaire Amkeni Biakato (RCAB) director Parfait Katoto was visited at this home by three armed soldiers with the DRC military in the Mambasa territory of the Ituri province. Katoto had already gone into hiding for fear of reprisals. The soldiers warned his family that they would kill the journalist for his criticism of insecurity in the territory’s Babila Babombi locality. The Network for Investigative Journalists in RDC believes that the journalist’s life is in danger and urges the security authorities to carry out investigations in order to quell this threat.

● On 1st June 2024, reporters Esaïe Mbusa and Néhémie Paluku were assaulted by around a dozen people at a local church in Mambasa territory, in the Ituri province, according to a report by the privately owned news site Congo 1. The reporters were seeking interviews with members of the local Kimbaguiste church, about a dispute with a local businessman over land ownership. The CPJ asked the authorities to credibly investigate this attack.

● On 5th June 2024, Tatiana Osango was attacked by seven men who used glass bottles to hit her. Osango is a reporter who presents a political programme on the privately owned YouTube-based news channel Réaco News, and earlier that day she had hosted a politician opposed to Tshisekedi for an interview. Osango told CPJ that the men said they were members of Forces of Progress, an informal youth group claiming to be associated with the ruling party Union for Democracy and Social Progress (UDPS). The assailants said they were acting on the orders of UDPS’s Secretary General Augustin Kabuya.

● On 15th June 2024, the journalists Auguy Kabuende, Placide Cilewu and Hénoch Muteba, all based in Mbuji-Mayi in the province of Kasai Oriental, were attacked. They respectively work at Radio Télé Débout Kasaï (RTDK), Radio Télévision de l'Eglise Evangélique des Témoins du Christ (RTEEC) and Coulisses. net. The journalists were attacked at the headquarters of the Federation of the UDPS political party (Union for Democracy and Social Progress). The assailants, who claimed to be members of the UDPS, resented the presence of journalists at an event organised by a group of cadres led by Mr Jean-Paul Mbwebwa, Provincial Governor and fervent supporter of the disputed Secretary General, Mr Augustin Kabuya. The assailants destroyed and confiscated several items of equipment belonging to the journalists.

● On 12th August 2024, Jacques Asuka, journalist and editor of the newspaper Grand Débat, published in Kinshasa, was arrested by several officers of the Kinshasa/Gombe public prosecutor's office, who were carrying a wanted notice. He was handcuffed and bundled into a vehicle before being taken to the prosecutor's cell. On 13th August 2024, the journalist was questioned by a magistrate. The charge arose from the publication in issue no. 442 of Grand débat of an advertisement promising the forthcoming publication of information on the management of Société minière de Kilo Moto (Sokimo), a gold mining company, since the advent of Mr Pistis Bonongo Tokole as Managing Director. The Observatoire de la Liberté de la Presse en Afrique (OLPA), an NGO that defends and promotes press freedom, expressed its concern.

● On 17th August 2024, Radio Tokomi Wapi reporter Martin Kasongo was threatened by the mayor of the city of Kabinda, Marie-Anne Tshiabu. She called Kasongo and said she would have him arrested or “use another way,” demanded that he give her the content of his show for review before it was broadcast, and threatened to close the privately owned radio station, Kasongo told CPJ. Tshiabu’s threats came in response to a broadcast that day during which Kasongo had accused the mayor of illegally collecting taxes from motorcycle taxis and mistreating central market vendors, the journalist said.

● The next day, on 18th August 2024, Top Lomami radio reporter Michaël Tenende was also threatened. Ananias Mukanz, a territorial inspector in the province, along with four unidentified people, forcibly entered the studio of the privately owned Top Lomami station as Tenende was on air criticising the disappearance of a vehicle chartered by the president’s office to transport local civil servants, Tenende told CPJ. Before halting the broadcast, Tenende informed the audience of the attack, and several listeners arrived at the station and intervened to prevent his arrest. The other intruders nevertheless seized two recording devices, a phone, and a computer from the studio.

Radio stations under assault in the East

On 1st June 2024, in the east of the DRC, members of the national army assaulted the premises of the community radio station Radio communautaire et environnementale de Kanyabayonga (RCEKA-FM) in Lubero territory in North Kivu.

The next day, on 2nd June 2024, the premises of another community radio station, Radio Maendeleo Kaseghe, located on a hill in Lubero, were also raided by national army soldiers.

These events create an information desert in the east of the DRC.

According to Human Rights Watch, since 28th June 2024, when M23 rebels arrived in the south of Lubero, six radio stations have been vandalised, five are broadcasting under the control of M23 and at least 14 are now completely inactive.

Media regulator suspends journalist; programme and entire channel

On 10th May 2024, the Communication and Broadcasting Board (Conseil supérieur de l'audiovisuel et de la communication, CSAC) suspended journalist Jessy Kabasele for an indefinite period, following his interview with one of the country’s most famous singers, Koffi Olomide. During the interview, aired by the state-run broadcasting company, Olomide criticised the army’s response to M23 rebels’ assault as too weak.

The CSAC accused Kabasele of failing to reframe Olomide’s speech which, it argued, “undermines the enormous efforts and sacrifices made by the government.”

The musician Koffi Olomidé was also summoned for his statements, deemed ‘denigrating and demobilising’ for the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of Congo (FARDC). On 15th July 2024, he was represented by his lawyers at the Public Prosecutor's Office, as he was out of the country. His hearing therefore did not take place.

Human Rights Watch reminds that derogations to respect freedom of expression are possible during states of emergency, but there are strict standards that are not met by the CSAC’s inference.

On 15th May 2024, the CSAC ordered the privately owned Bosolo TV station to suspend its “Bosolo Na Politik Officielle” programme for a month. According to a CSAC video statement posted on X, the programme was suspended in connection with critical comments made by host Israel Mutombo, the director of Bosolo TV, during a 14th May 2024 broadcast in which he urged Congolese politician Christophe Mboso N’kodia, 83, to retire from office due to his age. The CSAC said Mutombo’s comments amounted to a counter-campaign to undermine Mboso’s electoral campaign and therefore violated its directives on electoral campaigns and article 113 of the 2023 press code, which relates to journalists’ infringement on the “rights of others and good morals and has caused harm.”

At an extraordinary meeting held on 12th September 2024, the CSAC decided to suspend the CANAL+ POP channel for a period of 45 days in the entire territory. This decision follows the broadcast of the reality show The Bachelor, despite a prior ban and a strict warning from the CSAC. According to the official statement, the CSAC considers the broadcast to be a ‘serious breach’ of the established rules, particularly after CANAL+ was warned that the programme would be banned a few days before its launch. However, the channel lodged an appeal against the CSAC's decision, but broadcast the programme without waiting for the institution’s official response.

LGBTQI+

Courts instructed to crack down on LGBTQI+

In April 2024, a Congolese MP from the ranks of Dynamique Progressiste Révolutionnaire (DYPRO), Constant Mutamba Tungunga, introduced a bill to make homosexuality punishable by up to 15 years of “penal servitude” and a very heavy fine.

On 29th May 2024, Constant Mutamba was appointed Minister of Justice. Two weeks later, on 15th June 2024, he instructed his country’s prosecutor general to crack down on LGBTQI+ persons. On 19th June 2024, at the behest of the new Minister of Justice, the public prosecutor at the Court of Cassation, Firmin Mvonde Mambu, instructed judges to take legal action against the “perpetrators of deviant sexual and homosexual practices, as well as those responsible for noise pollution”. This measure is not officially backed by law.

NGOs had already criticised this measure and suggested that the Minister initiate a text before instructing the magistrates. Jules Omanga, activist and lawyer, denounces the risk of police arbitrariness and the risk of people attacking homosexuals.