Armed Men Dug a Hole on the Wall of an Environmental Lawyer in Congo 🇨🇩, Threaten to Kill Him for Publishing a Report of Land Encroachment by Former President Joseph Kabila.
Armed men, including two dressed in police uniform, attacked the home of Congolese lawyer Timothée Mbuya in January this year and told his family members they were sent to kill him. Mbuya is also facing a defamation lawsuit after publishing a report alleging encroachment of a protected area by a farm owned by former DRC president Joseph Kabila. Experts say both the lawsuit and the violent assault on the lawyer’s home fit a pattern of harassment of environment and human rights activists in DRC.
At around midnight on Jan. 12, at least six men, armed with hammers and AK-47s and wearing balaclavas, smashed a large hole in the wall to gain entry to the property in Lubumbashi, the Katanga provincial capital, where Mbuya’s wife and children and several members of his extended family were sleeping.
For more than an hour, the men threatened to kill family members, including the activist’s 9-year-old son, unless they gave up his father’s location. The attackers, two of whom Mbuya says were dressed as police officers, eventually left, taking mobile phones, a laptop, and jewelry.
Mbuya said he believes the attack is linked to a report on encroachment into protected areas published by Justicia in September 2021, which among other things alleged that Kabila’s farm, Ferme Espoir, has illegally encroached on Kundelungu National Park.
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