According to Ms. Barbara Nzimbi, communication advisor to Joseph Kabila, the Congolese people have already understood "the modus operandi" of the Union for Democracy and Social Progress (UDPS), the ruling party. This consists of "complaining and falsely accusing others, forgetting that to govern is also to take responsibility." Barbara Nzimbi has deemed these accusations irresponsible. "The serious and irresponsible statements of Augustin Kabuya (UDPS) border on madness," she reacted.

She has labeled these accusations as a "distraction" because the party of Félix Tshisekedi inherited an entire country in the hands of Joseph Kabila. "This latest distraction can only come from this party seeking to divert the attention of the Congolese from its inability to manage the country, a country that Joseph Kabila bequeathed to the UDPS, which the same party continues to destroy year after year since 2019," she declared.

Having been abroad since mid-January 2024, Joseph Kabila currently resides between South Africa and Namibia. According to the head of President Félix Tshisekedi's party, the former Raïs left the country "in secret." However, his camp notes that the fourth Congolese president left the Democratic Republic of the Congo "properly and officially" and "does not have to answer to the UDPS." The former president "continues and respects his agenda, including his academic responsibilities to fulfill." Joseph Kabila, she adds, "will return to his country freely whenever he wishes. And that, without any restrictions."

The communication advisor for Joseph Kabila reminds us that he is the only head of state in the entire history of the DRC "to organize democratic elections followed by a peaceful transition that benefited this same party [UDPS] first and foremost." Given these democratic achievements, Joseph Kabila "can he flee? [Or] better yet abandon that to which he has dedicated his entire life? Or even be at the root of any destabilization of the same nation? It's illogical to think in this direction," replies Barbara Nzimbi.

During a political morning at the UDPS headquarters in Kinshasa, in the commune of Limete, Augustin Kabuya claimed that Joseph Kabila knew that his party members were going to join the rebellion raging in the East of the DRC. That's why he had left the country without informing the relevant services. "The situation we find ourselves in, it's always Joseph Kabila who's at the base of it. Through which border of the DGM [General Directorate for Migration, editor's note] did Joseph Kabila leave the country? (...) He knew everything that was happening [in the East of the country]. He knew that his men were going to join [the rebellion]," he declared.

In the week, another national deputy of the Sacred Union, Eliezer Ntambwe, directly called on the Deputy Prime Minister of the Interior to withdraw the accreditation of Joseph Kabila's party, the PPRD, after noting that three of its members have joined the ranks of the Congo River Alliance/M23 rebellion supported by Rwanda, which occupies significant swathes of territory in the North Kivu province.

However, this request has met with resistance from some public opinion.

"Statements made without proof only serve to divide the country and exacerbate an already severe political, security, economic and social situation. In view of the deaths in the East and the ongoing looting, the accusers must provide proof so that all Congolese can know those who are attacking the country," responded on X, Jean-Claude Katende, national president of the African Association for the Defense of Human Rights (ASADHO).

Dido Nsapu