Retired Lieutenant General Sikatenda Shabani, former fighting companion of Laurent-Désiré Kabila in the Fizi-Baraka maquis, in South Kivu, died recently, after a very short hospitalization at the Tshatshi military camp, after having been in a coma at the Ndolo military prison where he had been detained for eight months without benefiting from appropriate care. He takes with him a part of the military and revolutionary history of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

I vividly remember his arrival at Ndolo military prison in October 2024. He was already gravely ill, physically and mentally debilitated. His vacant stare revealed total disorientation—he no longer even knew where he was. At the age of 82, he no longer possessed the physical, mental, or military capacity to imagine, let alone carry out, any form of coup d’état.

A long-time comrade of President Laurent-Désiré Kabila (known as “Mzee”) during the resistance in Fizi-Baraka, and a member of the Bembe ethnic group, General Sikatenda remained a devoted patriot—a man who had dedicated his entire life, beginning in his Lumumbist youth, to the defense of his homeland. After Mzee Kabila came to power in 1997, toppling the Mobutu regime, Sikatenda held several senior positions within the Congolese Armed Forces (FAC), which replaced Mobutu’s Zairian Armed Forces (FAZ).

A discreet man, remarkably humble and soft-spoken, I still recall the few yet profound conversations we shared during our time in detention. He often expressed his deep regret that the so-called “revolution of forgiveness” led by LD Kabila had failed to meaningfully transform the country or its people. He would say, with bitterness:

“Mzee merely changed the name from Zaire to the Democratic Republic of Congo, without changing the ‘Zairian,’ who today calls himself Congolese.”

This was his lucid way of pointing out that a mere change of name had not eradicated the moral decay, corruption, and deeply rooted anti-values that continue to plague every level of society, starting at the very top.

The passing of General Sikatenda must be more than a moment of mourning—it should awaken both national and international public opinion to the appalling conditions of detention in the DRC. Every detainee, regardless of the charges against them, has the right to be treated with dignity. Yet in the DRC, prison often serves as a slow and silent death sentence—far crueler than legal execution. The inhumane, unsanitary, degrading, and life-threatening conditions in detention centers are deliberately maintained by the authorities, in a justice system that has become increasingly dehumanized and politicized.

As of today, approximately twenty generals are being held in detention in the DRC, accounting for nearly 10% of the country’s total general officer corps. While some are justifiably imprisoned, others are clearly victims of political purges or carefully disguised vendettas.

This is not a call to place military officers above the law—but it is unacceptable to humiliate generals who have loyally served the nation by treating them like common criminals. A general represents a symbol—of service, sacrifice, and loyalty to the Republic, regardless of the ruling regime. Under Mobutu, high-ranking officials facing justice were often placed under house arrest or exiled to their villages. Today, they are thrown into filthy prison cells, often without trial, as is the case for several detained generals and senior officers—evidently with the intent to destroy them permanently.

According to information collected by AFRIDESK from relatives of his family: “To date, General Sikatenda has not yet been buried. We ridicule our family. They still do not know if his remains will be returned to them so that they can organize a dignified funeral. A family member said the mourning lasted so long that they stopped meeting in the family plot because the cost of caring for everyone after them is so high. » This is simply inhumane and despicable.

Concretely, according to our source close to the family, the file is blocked at the level of the Ministry of Defense. Members of General Sikatenda’s family recently met with Defense Minister Guy Kabombo Mwadiamvita. The latter told them that the ministry had never been informed by the army headquarters. Which is false according to certain sources at the general staff. In addition, the family itself sent several letters to the Ministry of Defense, which promised to contact them again after discussing it with its hierarchy, without follow-up. The family also wrote to the Presidency of the Republic, without response. There is an ugly game of shifting blame between the army headquarters, the Ministry of Defense and the presidency (Jacques Tshisekedi, according to several sources).

History will remember that General Sikatenda—a hero and patriot of the past—died almost anonymously in prison, weakened and forgotten, amid widespread indifference. This is a national disgrace for the Democratic Republic of Congo, a member of the United Nations Human Rights Council. It is a collective failure that we, as Congolese people, must acknowledge and rectify—both for the sake of those still alive, and in honor of those who have passed.