DRC: Puzzling ‘attempted coup’ still raises more questions than answers — analysts

New questions have been raised over the recent alleged coup attempt in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) after a new video emerged, believed to show DRC soldiers executing men who took part in the failed coup, and also with the family of an US citizen, accused of being one of the plotters, although he claimed he was merely in Africa on vacation.

The Congolese army announced on 19 May that it had foiled a coup attempt in Kinshasa, involving both Congolese and foreign citizens — including three US nationals and a naturalized British subject. While analysts have warned that the thwarted coup attempt risks aggravating tensions in the mineral-rich central African nation that has long been rocked by insecurity, it also raises more questions than it provides answers over what is really going on in the divided country rocked by political tensions and protracted conflict in the DRC’s east.

More questions have now arisen after a video was released purportedly showing Congolese soldiers executing men who took part in an alleged coup attempt. Adding to this uncertainty is a new statement by the family of Tyler Thompson, one of at least two other Americans who were named by the DRC army as part of a failed coup plot, saying that “he did not go to Africa with plans for political activism,” but he was there on vacation.

This leads Congolese political scientist Jean-Clause Mputu to question the exact motive behind the attack and the coup attempt: “These people had an agenda that remains a mystery to me…” Other analysts question how the assailants could break so easily into the capital’s most secure area that is the DRC’s seat of power. “How can we explain that the intelligence services did not see this blow coming?” asks Bienvenu Matimo, an activist with the non-partisan youth civil society movement LUCHA. “How did these young people leave the United States to arrive in Kinshasa with ammunition and weapons?” In light of all these puzzling aspects, some, including Christian Moleka, coordinator of DRC non-profit Dypol, worry that the failed coup could also “legitimize authoritarian decisions in the name of security” and see “a shrinking of the democratic space” from which the opposition would primarily suffer.