RDC: Corneille Nangaa declares that the sanctions imposed by the United States will not stop them from continuing their struggle

Corneille Nangaa declares that the sanctions imposed by the United States will not stop them from continuing their struggle

Corneille Nangaa, who now opposes the regime of President Felix Tshisekedi, is a politician who headed the Independent Electoral Commission of the Democratic Republic of Congo (CENI) during Felix Tshisekedi’s first term and later founded the political group Army that formed the AFC.

The group was announced on December 15, 2023 at the Serena Hotel in Nairobi, Kenya. The AFC group has joined many other military groups that have opposed the RDC regime, including the M23 group that has been fighting in the eastern part of the country for a long time.

Nanga explained that the AFC was established specifically to address the problems in the eastern part of the DRC that had not been resolved over the past three decades, and he confirmed that the failure to resolve these problems was due to the poor leadership of President Tshisekedi.

According to the BBC, on July 25, 2024, the United States announced sanctions against several rebel groups fighting in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, including the “M23” movement, which was accused of trying to overthrow the government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Corneille Nangaa, head of the Alliance des Rivers du Congo (AFC), which includes the M23, announced that US sanctions would not stop their fight to get the country back on track. “The target is Kinshasa and we will get there,” he said.

The United States issued a statement through the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, announcing that the U.S. government would impose sanctions on three senior leaders of armed groups in eastern Congo.

They include AFC Chairperson Corneille Nangaa, M23 political director Bertrand Bisimwa and Colonel Charles Sematama, one of the leaders of the Twirwaneho group operating in South Kivu.

The United States accuses them of engaging in war, violence and harming civilians “in order to achieve their political goals.”

“All assets and interests of these individuals located in the United States or controlled by U.S. persons are subject to seizure,” the Treasury Department said in a statement.

In addition, “every company owned directly or indirectly by these persons, in which their shares are 50% or more, will also be seized.”

The sanctions by the United States of America were announced following the trial in Kinshasa of Corneille Nangaa of the AFC and Bisimwa of the M23, along with more than 20 other M23 members, who were accused of crimes including treason and attempting to seize power by force. Under the RDC’s criminal code, the charges carry the death penalty.

Nanga criticized the case against him and his colleagues in Kinshasa, likening it to “a drama being staged by the Tshisekedi regime, aimed at misleading the public instead of facing up to the failures of the Congolese army and the embezzlement of billions of Congolese funds.” . “Officially”.