The DR Congo military on Sunday said it had thwarted an “attempted coup” near the offices of President Felix Tshisekedi in Kinshasa involving “foreigners and Congolese”. It happened in the early hours of the morning outside the residence of Economy Minister Vital Kamerhe, in the Gombe area in the north of the capital, near the Palais de la Nation that houses the President’s offices, a spokesman said. “An attempted coup d’etat has been stopped by the Defence and Security Forces,” said General Sylvain Ekenge in a message broadcast on national television. Shots were also heard near the Palais de la Nation at the time of the coup attempt, according to several sources.
Later on Sunday, 19 May, the army spokesman said several Americans and a British man were part of the group involved in the operation. The coup bid was led by Christian Malanga, 41, a Congolese man who was a “naturalized American” and had been “definitively neutralized”, killed by the security forces, General Ekenge said in a broadcast on Sunday evening.
