Politics

Congolese presidential hopeful, Kabund sentenced 7 years for ‘defaming’ President Tshisekedi

Published

8 months ago

September 13, 2023

Congolese presidential hopeful, Jean-Marc Kabund has been sentenced to seven years in jail on 12 counts, including spreading untrue rumours and defaming the head of state.

Lawyer to the former parliament vice president confirmed the sentence on Wednesday, adding that Kabund had been remanded at Kinshasa’s central prison where he had been held since his arrest in August 2022, after he called Tshisekedi a “danger” and lambasted his government in a speech.

The embattled politician was a close associate of President Felix Tshisekedi who launched his own political party last year after the two fell out.

“The court sentenced him to four months each for the first nine offences and 16 months each for the last three,” Kabund’s lawyer, Kadi Diko told Reuters, adding that the most serious offences were “spreading false rumours” and “contempt for head of state and parliament”.

“This is an extremely harsh decision, especially as there is no appeal,” the lawyer added.

The presidential election is scheduled to hold on December 20 in the East African country and the build-up has been tense. In July, an opposition spokesman was shot dead in the capital Kinshasa, while opposition parties have held violent demonstrations denouncing irregularities in voter registration.

Kabund, whose latest sentence makes him ineligible to run, had declared that he would lead his “Alliance for Change” party into the 2018 election and run for president.

Meanwhile, presidential spokesperson, Tina Salama, has maintained that “The presidency is in no way concerned by court decisions,” and “it is neither a plaintiff nor a civil party in this case and therefore cannot comment on it.”

Related Topics:Democratic Republic of Congo Featured Jean-Marc Kabund

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Politics

Burkina Faso investigating reports of northern killings

Published

38 mins ago

April 28, 2024

Ifeoluwa Dada

A government spokesman has revealed that Burkina Faso is looking into reports that 223 people were killed by the Burkinabe army in two villages in the north in February.

The killing was first reported by the Human Rights Watch (HRW), causing a rift between the junta-led West African state and some foreign media that published the report. The HRW report released on Thursday said that the military had executed residents of Nodin and Soro, including at least 56 children, as part of a campaign against civilians suspected of working with jihadist terrorists. The report was based on interviews with witnesses, members of civil society, and other groups.

Rimtalba Jean Emmanuel Ouedraogo, a spokesman for the government, said that HRW’s claims were “peremptory” and that the junta was not unwilling to look into the claimed crimes.

“An investigation has been launched into the killings in Nodin and Soro,” Ouedraogo said in a late-evening statement, quoting a statement from a regional prosecutor on March 1.

Since Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger’s militaries took over in a series of coups from 2020 to 2023, violence in the area has gotten worse. This is because of the ten-year fight with Islamist groups related to Al Qaeda and Islamic State.

Attacks on Burkina Faso got much worse in 2023, with more than 8,000 people killed, according to the U.S.-based crisis-monitoring group ACLED.

Politics

S’Africa lengthens troop deployment in Mozambique, Congo DR

Published

2 days ago

April 26, 2024

Ifeoluwa Dada

President Cyril Ramaphosa said in a speech that South Africa’s military would keep sending troops to Mozambique and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which are both in the middle of wars.

The extension will leave 1,198 members of the South African National Defense Force (SANDF) in eastern Congo for an unknown amount of time. They are there as part of a United Nations peacekeeping force helping Congo fight rebel groups.

The statement also said that 1,495 members of the SANDF would keep working in Mozambique, where they have been since 2021 helping the government fight dangerous extremism in the north.

After two SANDF troops were killed and three were hurt by a mortar bomb in Congo in February, South Africa’s military operations abroad have been looked at more closely at home this year.

Meanwhile, the major opposition party in South Africa, the Democratic Alliance, said that Ramaphosa sent troops into a war zone without being ready.
Under the supervision of the UN, the SANDF has taken on many dangerous and difficult peacekeeping tasks over the years to help war-torn African countries stay stable and peaceful.

In 2003, South Africa was one of the first countries to send troops to Burundi to help the peace process. During the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) peacekeeping mission in 2000, the SANDF led attempts to stabilize the country’s politics, rebuild and improve infrastructure, and train DRC troops.