What we all know in regards to the failed coup try within the Democratic Republic of the Congo : NPR
Questions are mounting a couple of failed coup try within the Democratic Republic of the Congo over the weekend that concerned a number of U.S. residents.
MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
Questions are mounting a couple of failed coup try within the Democratic Republic of Congo over the weekend. It concerned a number of U.S. residents, as Kate Bartlett studies.
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UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: Felix Tshisekedi…
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: You are out. They’re coming for you.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #3: You are completed.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: They’re coming for you.
KATE BARTLETT, BYLINE: Within the early hours of Sunday morning, a rag-tag group of about 50 males, wearing camouflage gear and carrying computerized weapons, broke into the presidential palace in DRC’s capital, Kinshasa. By the point the solar was up, the chief of the would-be coup, a little-known Congolese opposition politician named Christian Malanga was lifeless. And his U.S.-born son, Marcel and two different Americans had been in handcuffs.
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SYLVAIN EKENGE: (Talking French).
BARTLETT: DRC military spokesman, Sylvain Ekenge, shortly went on tv asserting the tried coup had been foiled. Malanga, who was primarily based within the U.S., and several other different assailants had been killed. The remainder of the group had been arrested, together with a U.S. nationwide named Benjamin Zalman-Polun. The 36-year-old from Maryland is described as a hashish entrepreneur, who was allegedly concerned in mining pursuits with Malanga.
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UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #4: (Talking French).
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #5: (Talking French).
BARTLETT: The instigators streamed the tried coup stay on Fb. They declared it was the tip of the Democratic authorities of President Felix Tshisekedi. They hoisted the outdated flag of Zaire, as DRC was identified till 1997 when U.S.-backed dictator, Mobutu Sese Seko, was ousted. In addition to getting into the presidential palace, they launched an unsuccessful assault on the house of a high-ranking politician the place two guards had been killed.
DINO MAHTANI: Malanga was a fringe character in Congo’s political spectrum.
BARTLETT: That is Dino Mahtani, a former political adviser to the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Congo. He says it’s unlikely that Malanga acted alone.
MAHTANI: He had extraordinary connections developed throughout his time within the diaspora – was identified to be a form of eccentric gun-slinging kind, all of the whereas growing this narrative round how he was going to carry order and progress to Congo.
BARTLETT: The U.S. ambassador to DRC, Lucy Tamlyn, expressed shock on the obvious involvement of U.S. residents. The weird occasions of Sunday morning come as mineral-rich however chronically unstable DRC is preventing a insurrection within the east, and with Tshisekedi nonetheless unable to kind a authorities 5 months after elections. It additionally comes amid rising anti-Western sentiment within the nation, rising Russian affect and the gradual withdrawal of U.N. troops within the area. For NPR Information, I am Kate Bartlett in Johannesburg.
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