On December 11, 2020, the Council of the European Union decided to maintain individual restrictive measures against several personalities from the Democratic Republic of Congo until December 12, 2021, on the basis of an assessment of the situation in the country. These sanctions target several relatives of Joseph Kabila, the former Congolese president. These people were inscribed on the list by the Council in 2016 because of; inter alia, human rights violations. The measures taken against them consist of an asset freeze and a ban on entering the territory of the European Union. The list currently includes 11 people.[1] In 2019, the Council lifted its sanctions against Lambert Mende, the former government spokesperson, and Roger Kibelisa, the former head of internal security within the ANR. Major General Delphin Kahimbi, ex-chief of military intelligence, died on February 28, 2020. Jean-Claude Kazembe, the former governor of Haut-Katanga, died on July 21, 2021.
In October 2019, the sanctioned personalities requested the lifting of all restrictive measures taken against them[2] after filing appeals to the European Union (EU) court, which dismissed them, on February 12, 2020. The plaintiffs appealed again, but on September 15, 2021, the Court of Justice of the EU has confirmed the current sanctions regime which runs until December 2021.
Five years after this decision by the European Union, the observation is that most of the people targeted by these restrictive measures have never been the subject of credible judicial or disciplinary sanctions. Some of these people continue to hold political and military positions in strategic security positions.
Others, despite their flight, retain their capacity for nuisance within the army and intelligence services. This is the case of General John Numbi, the former Inspector General of the FARDC[3], the Congolese army and Kalev Mutondo, the former Director General of the National Intelligence Agency (ANR), the civil intelligence service attached to the Presidency of the Republic. These two people, lurking in the shadows, remain very active and uncontrollable because they have a free hand to reactivate their informal security networks well hidden in the army and within the security and intelligence services which have not yet undergone major restructuring since the end of the presidential term of Joseph Kabila.
In a situation of recrudescence of cases of human rights violations throughout the territory, and of an absence of justice towards the victims of acts alleged against them, which sounds like a bonus to impunity, this risks to reinforce other military and security officials to adopt a repressive posture in a period of serious political tension and almost generalized insecurity throughout the territory of the DRC.
The recent violent repression, in particular targeting Martin Fayulu and a Belgian journalist, during the demonstration organized by Lamuka in Kinshasa on September 15, 2021, is a very eloquent signal of the continued deterioration of the human rights situation in the DRC since 2019.
In March 2021, the Joint United Nations Office for Human Rights (UNJHRO) had documented 655 human rights violations throughout the territory of the DRC, an increase of 32% compared to February (495 violations). Of all the categories of people pointed out by these violations, it is the FARDC soldiers who committed the greatest number of violations with a sharp increase in the number of violations attributed to them (+ 127%).[4]
1. Army General Gabriel Amisi Kuumba “ Tango Four ” : Inspector General of the FARDC
General Amisi still remains very influential within the FARDC and keeps his networks within several units deployed in the east of the DRC in the provinces of Ituri and North Kivu, in particular in Beni where the massacres attributed to the alleged ADF are multiplying. The same province of North Kivu was the spectacular scene of the fatal attack on the convoy of Luca Attanasio , the Italian ambassador in Kinshasa as well as his Congolese driver and his Italian bodyguard, on February 22, 2021 in Kibumba , 30 km north of Goma.[5] General Amisi is among the two generals[6] the highest ranking FARDC officers. He was promoted by President Tshisekedi in July 2020 to the rank of army general, the highest rank in the FARDC and at the same time appointed to the post of Inspector General of the FARDC. Military gratuities which give the impression of a reward despite his harmful actions within the army against the civilian populations.
2. Army General John Numbi Banze on the run but still formidable
Currently without official military function, Army General John Numbi, former Inspector General of the Army and former head of the Congolese National Police is currently on the run. According to several sources, he is in exile in Zimbabwe. Others would have also seen him in Kigali where he maintains good relations with the authorities in place.[7] Rwanda remains the country which backed several Congolese rebellions, including a faction of NDC- Renovated ( Nduma ) in North Kivu and commonly called rebels Banyabwisha currently prevalent in Ituri. Military justice has officially launched an investigation to find him. However, Numbi had previously withdrawn for several months to his ranch in Lubumbashi, refusing to obey the orders of his upper hierarchy. This is a case of desertion which has never been the subject of any disciplinary sanction in accordance with articles 190 and 191 of law n ° 13/005 of January 15, 2013 relating to the status of the soldier of the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of Congo.[8] We will never cease to affirm that John Numbi remains an extremely harmful element in freedom, particularly in a period of serious political crisis which looms with the electoral uncertainties.
3. Gaston-Hughes Ilunga Kampete: Commander of the Kitona base in Kongo-Central
Lieutenant-General Ilunga Kampete is the former commander of the Republican Guard, in charge of presidential security under Kabila until July 2020 when President Tshisekedi appointed him to a strategic position as commander of the base in Kitona, the most large military base in the west of the country close to the capital and capable of acting in the event of disturbances in the capital. Kampete continues to enjoy impunity as elements under its control have violently cracked down on all peaceful protests against Kabila’s regime.[9]
4. Kalev Mutondo: former Director General of the National Intelligence Agency (ANR)
The former director general of the National Intelligence Agency (ANR), the powerful state security service under Kabila, is currently in hiding. Despite the opening of legal proceedings, unsuccessful to date, Kalev Mutondo remains unpunished in the Congolese judiciary. Like John Numbi, Kalev remains a potential destabilizing and harmful element in the fragile process of political normalization in the DRC underway. The man remains very dangerous. He keeps networks asleep within the ANR and military intelligence (Demiap) where he has placed several lieges. Maintaining EU sanctions would be a way of dissuading him from returning to the political arena.
5. Brigadier General Eric Ruhorimbere: Commander of the North Equator operational sector
Despite its rebel and war criminal past, especially in the massacres committed in Kasai in 2017[10], General Eric Ruhorimbere remains unpunished to this day. He holds a senior military position as commander of the Nord-Ubangi operational sector (ex-Equateur). A border area in the CAR where the Rwandan army and the mercenaries of the Russian group Wagner support the local power in its fight against the rebels, dumping tens of thousands of refugees in this vulnerable zone of the DRC. The insecurity in this fragile part of the country was such that in December 2020, the governor of the province of Sud-Ubangi had formally prohibited the soldiers who are not on duty to carry arms in the city of Gemena in order to fight against the insecurity caused by the military.[11]
6. Commissioner Ferdinand Ilunga Luyoyo of the Congolese National Police (PNC)
Commissioner Ferdinand Ilunga Luyoyo is a former commander of the ex-Cobra battalion of the PNC under John Numbi, to whom he is very close. He was the Senior Senior Commissioner of LENI[12], the former rapid reaction police (PIR), which became the special anti-riot unit, between 2015 and 2017. A dark period during which his unit was very active in the disproportionate repression of popular demonstrations in Kinshasa and in Lubumbashi.[13] Luyoyo has never been prosecuted by the Congolese justice. He still keeps relays within the LENI and the PNC Unit responsible for the protection of Institutions and High Personalities. In December 2019, Ilunga Luyoyo was suspended from his duties for having beaten up a lawyer in Lubumbashi. Luyoyo continues to hold a highly politicized post as president of the Congolese Boxing Federation.
7. Divisional Inspector Célestin Kanyama Cishiku, “Spirit of Death”: Director General of National Police Training Schools
Célestin Kanyama is a former provincial police commissioner of Kinshasa known by the surname of ‘Spirit of death ‘ for his repressive and violent methods repeatedly denounced by human rights organizations.[14] He currently serves as the commander of the police academies where police are taught tactical repressive policing techniques, following anti-urban guerrilla techniques that he used in the field when leading the police in Kinshasa.[15] As long as Kanyama is not the subject of exemplary legal proceedings in the DRC, the Council of the EU should extend the restrictive measures against him.
8. Evariste Boshab Mabudj-ma-Bilenge and Emmanuel Shadari Ramazani
Evariste Boshab Mabudj and Emmanuel Shadari are two cadres of the PPRD, Kabila’s party. They were, one after the other, the Interior and Security Ministers. They bear a heavy political and functional responsibility in the massacres which took place in Kasai between September 2016 and July 2017, in particular in the creation of militias which caused more than 3,000 deaths there. These Kabilist caciques were also active in the political blockade which led to the breakdown of the political coalition in power between Kabila’s FCC and Tshisekedi’s CACH, leading to strong political tensions that nearly plunged the DRC into chaos.
9. Former Governors Alex Kande Mupompa
Alex Kande – former Governor of Kasaï-Central – was also implicated in the aggravation of this deadly conflict after the assassination of the customary chief Jean-Pierre Mpandi of the Kamuina Nsapu.[16] According to several sources, the local militias created by these ex-collaborators of Kabila have not yet been seriously dismantled? They could reappear during an election period. Holder of Belgian nationality, he gave up his seat as a deputy in the provincial assembly of Kasai-Central in October 2019, in the hope of escaping the maintenance of the EU sanctions, which AFRIDESK recommends their renewal because never prosecuted in the DRC for his responsibility in these heinous crimes.
Conclusion: maintaining sanctions as a deterrent against potential future offenders
The general political and security situation in the country remains very volatile, despite the state of emergency declared by President Tshisekedi in eastern DRC, which is struggling to yield positive results. On the contrary, we are witnessing an upsurge in massacres and cases of human rights violations, particularly in the provinces administered by governors and military administrators, as well as in South Kivu, Kinshasa and Lubumbashi. These situations give the wind in their sails to the military and to the agents of the security and intelligence services to the point that one has the impression that the Congolese Head of State does not effectively control the defense and security forces.
Thus, the maintenance of restrictive measures against the above-mentioned persons will have a dissuasive effect during this period of strong political polarization marked by the crisis of ethnic politicization of the CENI. The current debates around the choice of the president of this major institution to support democracy and the stabilization of the country leave uncertainties about the legal conduct of an electoral process that the Congolese want to be credible, transparent, without corruption nor punctuated by serious human rights violations and serious irregularities as in 2018. The objective is to prevent a future crisis in the legitimacy of those in power upstream. No relevant fact or argument, in defense of the sanctioned, to date justifies the lifting of the EU restrictive measures against them. The maintenance of these sanctions would be seen as a nod of solidarity from the EU towards the repressed populations of the DRC and pressure on the leaders of the DRC in such a way as to push them to humanize the functioning of the army, security and justice services[17], in particular in its transitional aspect led by Dr. Denis Mukwege.
Jean-Jacques Wondo Omanyundu
Political analyst and expert on defense and security issues
AFRIESK exclusivity
References
[1] https://www.consilium.europa.eu/fr/press/press-releases/2020/12/11/democratic-republic-of-the-congo-council-extends-sanctions-for-one-year / .
[2] https://www.jeuneafrique.com/850136/politique/rdc-quinze-proches-de-joseph-kabila-demandent-a-lue-de-lever-les-sanctions-a-leur-encontre/.
[3] Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
[4] https://reliefweb.int/report/democratic-republic-congo/note-du-bcnudh-sur-les-principales-tendances-des-violations-des-23 .
[5] https://afridesk.org/lattaque-mortelle-du-convoi-de-lambassadeur-italien-en-rdc-a-qui-profite-le-crime-j-ziambi-jj-wondo/ .
[6] The other two generals are Army General Célestin Mbala Munsense, the current FARDC Chief of General Staff and Army General John Numbi.
[7] It was John Numbi and James Kabarebe who co-supervised the joint operation named “Umoja wetu ” (our unit) from January to March 2009 between the Rwandan army and the FARDC in North Kivu.
[8] Article 190 : La révocation est une sanction disciplinaire prononcée pour faute grave, après avis du Conseil de discipline, par l’autorité investie du pouvoir de nomination.
Elle est aussi prononcée en vertu d’une condamnation judiciaire assortie d’une peine complémentaire de destitution pour l’officier ou de dégradation, pour le sous-officier.
Article 191 : Est révoqué des Forces armées de la République Démocratique du Congo, l’officier ou le sous-officier qui abandonne son emploi ou refuse de servir avant d’avoir obtenu notification de l’acception de sa démission ou avant l’expiration du délai prévu à l’article 172.
Article 192 : La révocation prive l’officier ou le sous-officier de tout droit à la pension ou aux indemnités.
L’officier ou le sous-officier révoqué bénéficie d’une allocation unique équivalant à trois mois de traitement d’activité.
[9] JJ Wondo, Septembre rouge en RDC : Joseph Kabila dévoile son ADN politique sanguinaire. DESC, 22 septembre 2016 ; En ligne sur : http://desc-wondo.org/septembre-rouge-en-rdc-joseph-kabila-devoile-son-adn-politique-sanguinaire-jj-wondo/.
[10] https://desc-wondo.org/fr/les-massacres-au-kasai-central-desc-interpelle-les-collaborateurs-securitaires-de-kabila/.
[11] https://www.rrssjrdc.org/?p=19207.
[12] Légion nationale d’intervention de la police congolaise.
[13] https://monusco.unmissions.org/sites/default/files/bcnudh_-_rapport_sur_le_recours_a_la_force_et_annexes_-_mars_2018_0.pdf
[14] https://www.hrw.org/fr/news/2014/11/17/rd-congo-une-operation-policiere-conduit-la-mort-de-51-jeunes-hommes-et-garcons.
[15] https://www.rtbf.be/info/monde/detail_enquetes-au-congo-apres-la-mort-mysterieuse-de-plusieurs-jeunes?id=10024210.
[16] Germain Joseph Muanza Kambulu, Les massacres à huis clos dans le grand Kasaï (RDC), L’Harmattan, Paris, 2019, p.124.
[17] These sanctions also aim to ensure that the people concerned change their dangerous behavior, improve themselves to become players in the consolidation of peace, democracy, the rule of law and human rights.
