Congolese President Joseph Kabila: «Victim of a coup plot by mercenaries.»

© afrol News / UN / Michelle Poiré

afrol News, 24 May - A group of 26 foreigners are held detained in Kinshasa for allegedly planning a coup against the Congolese government before the upcoming elections. Most of the foreigners are South Africans working in the security company Omega International Associates, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Pretoria informs.

According to the South African Ministry's spokesman Ronnie Mamoepa, the government of Congo Kinshasa (DRC) has confirmed the arrest of 26 foreigners on Friday, 19 May, over an alleged coup plot. Congolese law enforcement agencies had arrested 19 holders of South African passports alongside three Americans and four Nigerians, Mr Mamoepa said. Another six Congolese nationals seem to have been jailed for the same incident, the Congolese Ministry of the Interior has indicated.

Sixteen of these South African citizens are members of the Omega Security Company, which has contracts with the Congolese National Transport office for the training of security personnel in Matadi, Boma and Mouanda. The other three South African citizens work for a mining company, Mirabulis, as interpreters, according to the information Mr Mamoepa had obtained from the Congolese government. The US government has not yet reacted on these reports from Kinshasa.

Further, according to information at the disposal of the South African diplomatic mission in Kinshasa, investigations are currently underway even though the authorities have indicated that the detainees are being on held on allegations of "destabilisation of government institutions," the South African spokesman revealed.

The Congolese Minister of the Interior, Theophilus Mbemba, however gave a more dramatic description of the situation when speaking to the press today. The group of 32 persons had been arrested for plotting to overthrow President Joseph Kabila, the Minister said. He described the foreigners as "mercenaries", saying most of them had worked as soldiers in Iraq and claimed they were in possession of military equipment.

The government's claims of a planned coup comes only a few months before the transitional government of national unity stands for election, together with President Kabila. A possible coup attempt could foil the war-ravaged country's possibilities to arrange peaceful and credible elections, thus also endangering the fragile peace process.

The Congolese government's claim of a planned coup however has not been met with belief among most observers. Not even the UN's spokesman in Kinshasa, Jean-Tobias Okala, believed the allegations. "We are not concerned about this, it appears to be a case of political manipulation by Congo's government," he was quoted by AP as saying, adding that the UN had almost 18,000 troops in Congo Kinshasa which would make it unlikely for coup-makers to succeed.

Also the South African Omega security company today strongly questioned the Congolese government allegations. A company spokesman told the South African news agency SAPA that Omega's subsidiary was a registered security company in Congo Kinshasa that was adhering strictly to the law in that country.

Only South Africa embassy personnel have so far been able to speak to the detained "mercenaries", government officials in Pretoria and Kinshasa have confirmed. The South African embassy in Kinshasa had been granted permission for a consular visit to the detainees yesterday. But Congolese Minister Mbemba told the press that his government so far had not formally contacted the US and Nigerian citizens held detained since Friday.

Elections in Congo - the first in 40 years - are planned for mid-August, although no date has been set. The organisation of the polls in this vast country has met with many problems, and only today the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) announced yet another delay of the registration process for candidates running for provincial elections.

By staff writer

© afrol News

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