An official of the party of the opponent Moïse Katumbi was killed and several others wounded Tuesday, November 28, 2023 in Kindu, in eastern DRC, where the opponent arrived as part of his campaign for the presidential election of December 20. This is the first major incident since the beginning of this election campaign, which is taking place in a tense political climate.

The climate was already tense long before the landing of Moïse Katumbi’s plane, the authorities having forbidden the opponent to hold his meeting at the Central Tribune of the main artery of the city of Kindu.

Upon arrival, Moïse Katumbi and his allies, including former Prime Minister Matata Ponyo and Seth Kikuni were cheered and followed by the crowd in the streets before the rally relocated elsewhere. It was at the approach of the governor’s residence that the opponent and his supporters were attacked with stone throws by young supposed to belong to the presidential party.
“Stoned”, according to his party
In the exchanges and the crowd, at the head of the procession, Dido Kakisingi, youth leader of the Ensemble for the Republic party of Moïse Katumbi in Kindu, was hit by a projectile. On the ground, he was beaten violently to the point of dying, according to his party, claiming that he was simply “stoned”.

But for the mayor of Kindu, the latter fell from a vehicle of the procession before being stamped. The police intervened, firing live ammunition. In the process, several others were injured.

These incidents did not stop the campaign procession of Moïse Katumbi who held his rally to ask the people to vote.

Only one tooth remains of the remains of Congolese leader and nationalist Patrice Lumumba, murdered in 1961. This relic will finally be handed over to the family of the deceased on 20 June 2022 in Brussels. For Lumumba’s heirs, this is the first victory after a thirty-year legal battle. Thirty years of crying out for justice and truth about the real circumstances of Patrice’s death! Thirty years to claim from the Belgian colonial power, the recognition of its responsibility in this unspeakable crime.

In 2001, Belgium acknowledged its ‘moral responsibility’ in Lumumba’s death. This is very little compared to the scale of cruelty revealed by the history of Belgian colonization in the Congo. So many shattered lives, enormous potentialities drowned, lands ripped open and emptied for the benefit of its ” owner ” Leopold II, the freedom and destiny of an entire confiscated people…, the sum of the horrors inflicted on the Congolese people is unspeakable. Patrice Emery Lumumba, appointed prime minister after Congo’s independence, aspired only to restore its dignity to its people. In a speech that remained famous on that occasion, he recalled the extent of the pains suffered by his country and his willingness to put it back on its feet, not as a vassal but as a free and proud land, a ‘head up’ land that takes its destiny in hand. These words probably cost him his life. We had to quickly eliminate this false note from the hymn of domination and crushing. It was necessary to reduce to nothing these desires of black determination. Lumumba could make emulations, give ideas to other sons of Congo and Africa. It was necessary to break the chain of African awakening. It had to be dissolved. And this is what the executioners of Lumumba did.

In the middle of the African night, we began by getting drunk to have courage. We spread the bodies. The hardest thing was to cut them into pieces, with a chainsaw, before pouring acid into them. There was almost nothing left, only a few teeth. And the smell! I washed three times and I still felt as dirty as a barbarian,” said Gérard Soete, a Belgian policeman on 15 May 2002, forty years after Patrice Lumumba’s disappearance.

But Lumumba’s soul is tenacious. It doesn’t completely die out. Even in acid, it has withstood nothingness and resurfaced in the heart of truth today. Lumumba’s immortality is exploding in the eyes of the world. His tooth, which will be given to his family, remains the most edifying testimony of the colonial horror and injustices imposed on the black land. God only knows how many African breaths were thus cut and dissolved!
Before the whole world, Belgium will face its conscience, with Lumumba’s tooth in its hand. Lumumba has not been defeated. He is there, in the hearts of these young black consciences who are inspired by his struggle. His life and struggle, like children of eternity, will maintain his living immortality.

Patrice Emery Lumumba, more than a Congolese and African leader, is a free man’s pride. And nothing will erase it. Immortal Patrice Emery Lumumba!

King Philippe and Queen Mathilde of Belgium have been visiting the Democratic Republic of the Congo since 07 June 2022. Scheduled to end on 13 June, this visit marks an important turning point in relations between the DRC and Belgium, its former colonial power.

As we know, the Congo, which was once the ‘private property’ of King Leopold II, still bears the traces of the scars of Belgian colonization. It is difficult to forget the severed hands, the disemboweled land and the wealth taken away, the lives taken away and the countless potentialities destroyed in the Congo. How can we ignore the painful assassination of Patrice Emery Lumumba, ‘the inventor of the future’, to repeat Césaire’s words? The list of wrongs is long and it has greatly obscured the relations between the two peoples.

The purpose of this visit by King Philip II is to renew ties and look to the future with confidence. On Wednesday, June 8, in front of the Congolese senators and deputies gathered at the Kinshasa People’s Palace, King Philippe expressed ‘deep regret’.

“On the occasion of my first visit to the Congo, right here before the Congolese people and those who still suffer from it, I wish to reaffirm my deepest regret for these wounds of the past. Sincere regrets that I expressed in my letter to you, Mr. President, two years ago now, for the 60th anniversary of independence,” he said, drawing a bleak picture of colonialism. Perhaps some Congolese were waiting for more. They wanted an apology from King Philip and hoped for reparations. He chose to look to the future to forge a new, fairer and more prosperous partnership.

“Today, you wish to write a new chapter in our relations and look to the future, encouraged by the formidable youth of the Congolese people who are only asking to value their talents. Let’s write this new chapter together”, he said.

These are strong words that set in motion a dynamism between the two countries. Despite the burns of the past, the Democratic Congo today needs development and security. Let us hope that words will give way to concrete actions for the great happiness of the Congolese people!