According to local media and Michel Moto Muhima, a spokesperson for Vital Kamerhe, three individuals were killed in a gunfight between assailants in military uniform and guards of Kamerhe, a top Congolese politician. The incident took place in Kinshasa early Sunday, May 19.
According to Mr. Muhima, two police officers and one of the attackers were killed during the gunfire, which began about 4:30 a.m. in a residence on Tshatshi Boulevard, two kilometers from the presidential palace and home to some foreign embassies.
The armed men attacked the residence of Mr. Kamerhe, former deputy prime minister of the economy, but were driven off by his guards, according to Muhima, his spokesperson on X.
“Vital Kamerhe and his family are all safe. “Their security has been enhanced,” he tweeted. According to a spokesperson for the Democratic Republic of Congo’s Armed Forces, the shooting was an “attempted coup d’état” involving “foreign nationals and Congolese individuals” that was foiled and whose culprits have been apprehended.
“The defense and security forces thwarted an attempted coup d’état,” stated General Sylvain Ekenge in a brief message broadcast on national television. “This attempt involved foreigners and Congolese, all of whom have been annihilated, including their leader,” he stated. According some sources, the alleged leader is Christian Malanga, a Congolese citizen who reportedly lived in the United States, accompanied by an American citizen by the name of Benjamin Zalman-Polun.
Images, which appear to be from the area, show military trucks and heavily armed men parading through the neighborhood’s deserted streets. The Democratic Republic of Congo’s U.S. Embassy issued a security alert, urging caution after “reports of gunshots.”
According to an article by Le Monde, a French news outlet, the events occur within the backdrop of the crisis that is rattling President Félix Tshisekedi’s ruling party over the elections for the leadership of Parliament, which were scheduled to take place on Saturday but were postponed, and in which Vital Kamerhe wants to participate.
During the exchange of fire between the attackers and the Republican Guard, a shell coming from Kinshasa perforated a house in a neighborhood south of Brazzaville, neighboring Congo.
Following the incident, the neighboring Congo’s government released a statement describing what happened.
The statement informs national and international opinion that, following the events that transpired early this morning in the Democratic Republic of Congo, a shell fired from Kinshasa mistakenly fell in Brazzaville, in district 2 Bacongo, specifically in M’pissa neighborhood.
The shell directly damaged four homes; pieces from the impact also affected approximately ten other homes.
A few people were slightly injured, one of whom was evacuated to the Brazzaville military hospital for treatment by health services, according to the administration, which reassured the population of Brazzaville, particularly those in the affected neighborhoods, that it was an isolated incidence.
“