Luanda – Angolan President João Lourenço on Monday condemned the attempted coup d'état in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), which took place in the early hours of Sunday morning.
Speaking in Luanda at the opening of the virtual Extraordinary Summit of Heads of State and Government of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), João Lourenço, in his capacity as acting president of this regional organisation, reaffirmed ‘zero’ tolerance for unconstitutional changes of power in Africa.
He said that these acts go against the African Union Charter and the principles that guide SADC.
Angolan Head of State welcomed the fact that the ‘coup plot’ had not defeated democracy and the popular will expressed at the ballot box.
João Lourenço expressed solidarity with the Congolese people who, as well as facing a difficult and long armed conflict, have just experienced this challenge that has attacked the institutions of the state.
Several dozen uniformed and armed Congolese and foreign men failed in the early hours of Sunday morning in their coup attempt to oust President Félix Tshisekedi and establish a ‘new Zaire’ inspired by the dictatorial regime of Mobutu Sese Seco at the end of the last century.
In a statement denouncing the attack, the DRC government said that the attackers were of ‘various nationalities’, led by Congolese diaspora leader Christian Malanga, who was killed in the attack.
The spokesman for the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of Congo (FARDC), Sylvain Ekenge, who claimed in a brief message on public television on Sunday morning to have ‘nipped in the bud’ the ‘coup attempt’, said that the attackers, all of whom were killed or detained, were both Congolese and foreigners, although without specifying any other nationalities.
The Virtual Extraordinary Summit of SADC Heads of State and Government addressed the negative impact of the drought on the lives and livelihoods of some 58 million people affected in the region. ART/DAN/DOJ
