President Felix Tshisekedi’s advisor Danny Banza and Haut Katanga governor Jacques Kyabula have been fingered in the massacre of 50 opposition youths in Lubumbashi’s Kilobelobe area.
The 50 were allegedly murdered by Congolese commandos on March 23, 2023. Their demise has triggered widespread protests with families demanding answers while authorities appear to have no explanation.
Sources have disclosed that the massacre is a calculated operation by the Felix Tshisekedi regime to instill fear in the population of Katanga ahead of the December 20, 2023 polls.
Observers have compared the situation to the incidents between students and authorities that occurred at the University of Lubumbashi on the night of May 11 to 12, 1990, called the student massacre.
The situation is not very different. In this case, the victims are known so are the bereaved families too. But they are not university students as they belong to the militant youth wing of the opposition and operate from the markets.
They were killed and their bodies stashed in sacks before being thrown in a nearby river.
And the attackers were seen in broad daylight. Those responsible and their sponsors are hiding but word on the street is pointing to an authorization by Kyabula and Banza of the Congolese Army Commandos to carry out the heinous crime.
In fact, tribalism is a factor. It is driven by the power of the Kasai leadership in Kinshasa and its Katangese collaborators – Kyabula and Banza – which has placed Lubumbashi into an awkward position of a volcano on the verge of explosion.
Instead of investigating the deaths, each family of the victims was summoned to be given an envelope to bury the dead while the governor of Haut Katanga, Kyabula, avoided to face them.
In the absence of an autopsy on each body, no investigation will produce verifiable evidence attesting to the nature of the death, the origin of the bullets and the weapons which caused the carnage.
According to those close to the incident, the deaths occurred after the young people of the opposition UNAFEC sent a warning to the leaders of their party whom they accused of wanting to sell themselves to Tshisekedi.
Since the death of Kyungu wa Kumwanza, UNAFEC has been terribly weakened. Nothing is going well within the first Katangese political party.
In the family of Baba Kyungu, no figure is able to take up the torch. Between the ambitious widow, Mireille Masangu, the militant son Lolo Kyungu, the prudent daughter Angélique Kyungu and the other members of the family, no one wants to take their part in the reformation of the political party.
So, Dany Banza, the former roving ambassador of Tshisekedi now a presidential advisor, wants to assume the power of the opposition in Katanga.
“It is an open secret in Katanga that Dany Banza wants to take control of UNAFEC. He has an eye on the administration of Gécamines and the widow Mireille Masangu who he has helped get a government position in Kinshasa,” a senior member of UNAFEC told the local press.
“A few months before the next elections, he does not want to miss the opportunity to build a broad platform with his ACO party and UNAFEC.”
There are fears Katanga will implode considering that the ruling party is not liked in the area although its operatives are working overtime to win over the support.
