Congolese bishops deny ‘coup conspiracy’ claims
The bishops' conference expresses dismay at 'reckless, baseless, and unfounded allegations' made by the deputy prime minister.
Congolese bishops dismissed this week a senior politician’s claim that they are engaged in a conspiracy to topple the country’s President Félix Tshisekedi.
In a June 11 statement, the bishops accused deputy prime minister Jean-Pierre Bemba of “repeatedly making reckless, baseless, and unfounded allegations.”
Bemba said in a June 9 interview with Top Congo FM that he was prepared to release documents allegedly proving there was a plot to unseat Tshisekedi involving the Catholic Church, ex-president Joseph Kabila, and opposition leader Moïse Katumbi.
Referring to CENCO, the French acronym for the Congolese bishops’ conference, Bemba said: “I accuse Mr. Hippolyte Kanambe, alias Joseph Kabila, Katumbi Moïse Soriano, and certain leading figures of CENCO of being the authors of an attempt to destabilize the state, and also of endangering state security by seeking to eliminate the head of state.”
The bishops expressed “the greatest dismay” at Bemba’s comment, but said it did not come as a surprise as Bemba had made similar claims since the 2023 presidential election, in which Tshisekedi was re-elected in a landslide. The bishops called at the time for an independent inquiry into claims of widespread electoral irregularities.
“It should be noted that, since the 2023 electoral period to this day, Mr. Jean-Pierre Bemba has assumed an extremely dangerous role, that of making, with disconcerting levity, recurrent, baseless, and unfounded allegations against CENCO,” the bishops said.
“He multiplies statements that damage CENCO’s reputation and risk undermining the climate of trust necessary for national cohesion and harmonious coexistence, which the country so desperately needs.”
Bemba previously described bishops as “politicians in robes” in a Dec. 4 radio interview, prompting criticism from CENCO’s general secretariat, which called his remarks “astonishing, discourteous, and threatening.”
Tensions between the bishops and the government have spiked several times since the 2023 election.
In 2024, an official document accused Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo, the Archbishop of Kinshasa, of “seditious behavior,” leading to a meeting between Ambongo and Tshisekedi that appeared to diffuse the situation.
In February this year, officials briefly confiscated the passport of CENCO general secretary Msgr. Donatien Nshole when he landed at an airport in Lubumbashi after a trip to Tanzania.
Nshole was later questioned at the country’s interior ministry concerning a Feb. 22 CENCO press release highlighting alleged attacks on Swahili speakers in the DRC.
In their June 11 statement, the bishops defended their efforts to seek a comprehensive peace agreement covering the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the wider Great Lakes region, where decades of conflict have claimed millions of lives.
In January, they launched a peace initiative, known as the “Social Pact for Peace and Living Together in the DRC and the Great Lakes,” in partnership with the Church of Christ in the Congo, a union of 62 Protestant denominations known by its French acronym ECC.
Government figures criticized the joint CENCO-ECC initiative because it called for talks between all parties to the conflict, at a time when rebel groups were making rapid gains in the country’s turbulent eastern region.
Government supporters also claimed that international travel by CENCO-ECC representatives to promote the pact was funded by Kabila, who served as president from 2001 to 2019, and Katumbi, the head of the opposition Together for the Republic party. The representatives denied the allegation.
In their June 11 statement, signed by bishops’ conference president Archbishop Fulgence Muteba Mugalu, the bishops questioned why Bemba would oppose efforts to resolve the crisis engulfing the DRC by peaceful means.
“One must wonder whether, with his remarks, Mr. Bemba seeks to drag the country back to the era when he was responsible for the deaths of innocents in Kisangani and Kinshasa,” they said, likely referring to Bemba’s role as leader of the rebel Movement for the Liberation of Congo during and after the Second Congo War (1998-2003).
In 2016, the International Criminal Court in The Hague sentenced Bemba to 18 years in prison for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by the Movement for the Liberation of the Congo in the neighboring Central African Republic in 2002-2003.
After Bemba was acquitted in 2018, he returned to the DRC, where he now serves as deputy prime minister and minister of transport and channels of communication.
Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo, the current Archbishop of Kinshasa, offered testimony at the International Criminal Court during the proceedings against Bemba.
Ambongo, who was then the Bishop of Bokungu-Ikela, and Bemba are members of the Ngbaka ethnic group and have roots in the former Équateur province. But Ambongo has reportedly rejected suggestions that he offered testimony due to ethnic and geographical ties, insisting that as a churchman he is politically neutral.
In their June 11 message, the bishops underlined the Church’s commitment to promoting peace.
“It is therefore unacceptable that a public figure, motivated by personal considerations and manifest animosity toward his fellow citizens, should allow himself to defy reason, common sense, and the respect due to institutions,” they said.
“Furthermore, it is surprising that despite the seriousness of the remarks made by Deputy Prime Minister Bemba, there has been no reaction from the institutions of the Republic and his superiors.”
The bishops suggested that judicial authorities should scrutinize Bemba’s remarks.
“CENCO urges the Catholic faithful to pray for the person concerned so that the Spirit of Peace may descend upon him and turn him away from the violence he promotes,” they said.
“In an effort to protect national and international opinion against gross manipulation and to preserve the achievements of joint peace efforts, it also reserves the right to take legal action.”
I know this is something that a reader can infer upon further reading, but I think it could be useful to clarify from the outset that the article speaks of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC or less commonly, Congo-Kinshasa), instead of the Republic of Congo (Congo-Brazzaville).