Some participants carried banners bearing the images of Donald Trump and Félix Tshisekedi.
Parties of the presidential majority gathered thousands of activists on Monday in Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), for a march in support of US sanctions against former president Joseph Kabila, an AFP journalist reported.
Support for the M23
The United States sanctioned former president Joseph Kabila (2001-2019) on Thursday, accusing him of seeking to “destabilize the DRC government” and providing financial support to the M23, an anti-government armed group backed by Rwanda that has seized large swathes of territory in the east of the country.
Joseph Kabila denounced the decision on Friday as “profoundly unjustified” and affirmed his determination to fight against the regime of current President Félix Tshisekedi “against all forms of pressure.” Kinshasa, for its part, hailed it as “an important step in the fight against impunity” and expressed “its gratitude to the Trump administration.”
American and Congolese Flags
Monday’s march took place on Triomphal Boulevard in Kinshasa, under a sea of American and Congolese flags. “The DRC is behind President Trump, we support him 100%!” declared Paty Malanga, an activist with the Union for Democracy and Social Progress (UDPS), the presidential party.
“Kabila has committed many massacres,” said Julien, an activist from a party allied with the UDPS, who was also present in the procession.
At the end of September, the Congolese justice system sentenced Joseph Kabila in absentia to death for “complicity” with the M23.
With RTBF
