The family of Nangaa claims that DR Congo intelligence services are targeting them
The Congo River Alliance (AFC/M23) political coordinator Corneille Nangaa’s family has accused the DR Congo intelligence services of targeting its members with arbitrary arrests, forced exile, intimidation, and systematic harassment since late 2023.
According to a statement released from Paris on Sunday, January 18, the family of the former Congolese election chief who is now a rebel leader said that Didier Ilaani Nangaa’s detention for over ten days in a National Intelligence Agency (ANR) cell in Isiro, Haut-Uele Province, “without valid reason or due judicial process” is the latest example of the repression campaign.
Gabriel Nangaa, who claimed to be living in exile in France, said in the statement, “The Nangaa family firmly denounces the persecutions and repressions it has suffered since the Alliance Fleuve Congo was created by one of its members, Corneille Nangaa Yobeluo.”
He claimed that the family had written to President Felix Tshisekedi in January 2024 to express similar concerns, condemning systematic arrests, manhunts, and persecutions. It claimed, however, that their attempts were ineffective.
“Unfortunately, the situation has only gotten worse despite this initiative,” he added, adding that a number of family members are currently being held in military intelligence (DEMIAP) and ANR cells in addition to jails. According to Gabriel, since July 2024, at least four family members have received death sentences.
The statement claims that the criticized pressure has also resulted in limits on movement and forced relocation. Some family members are supposedly prohibited from leaving Isiro, the provincial capital of Haut-Uele, and several dozen are reportedly living in exile.
The family claimed to be living in constant fear.
The statement claimed that “suspenses, consecutive arbitrary detentions, intimidations, and threats aimed at causing fear and terror to all Nangaa have become commonplace.”
Nangaa Bambitoyobei Joseph, an 86-year-old traditional chief of the Wadimbisa Chiefdom in Wamba Territory, has also been affected, according to the statement.
In light of this, the Nangaa family requested intervention from the international community, human rights organizations, and Congolese authorities. “Urgent measures to put an end to these persecutions and to guarantee the safety and fundamental rights” of its members were demanded.
Didier Ilaani Nangaa and any other relatives who the family claims are being detained arbitrarily must be released immediately and without conditions.
Before President Tshisekedi entered office in early 2019, Corneille Nangaa led the DR Congo’s electoral commission. In December 2023, he helped form the AFC/M23 opposition alliance.
The coalition, which has now seized control of important eastern DR Congo cities, battles against corruption and ethnic discrimination that have made the large nation unruly.
According to Nangaa, Tshisekedi’s administration is unable to restore peace to the nation, which is home to more than 200 armed organizations.
