In a statement released on January 18, 2026, family representative Gabriel Bienvenu Baonoku Nangaa, currently exiled in Paris, said the repression against the family began in late 2023. This coincided with the creation of the AFC by the former head of the DRC electoral commission and its subsequent coalition with M23 rebel forces. Since then, Bienvenu revealed, family members have increasingly been targeted with arrests, detentions, and legal restrictions without due process.
'The arbitrary arrests, threats, and intimidation aimed at subjecting all members of the Nangaa family to fear and terror have become common,' the statement said.
The most recent case cited is that of Didier Ilaani Nangaa, who has been held for more than ten days in detention centers of the National Intelligence Agency (ANR) in Isiro, in Haut-Uele Province. According to the family, his detention is not supported by legally valid charges and has taken place outside any regular judicial framework.
The family says this incident is part of a broader pattern. In January 2024, it addressed an open letter to President Félix Antoine Tshisekedi Tshilombo to denounce what it described as persecution, repression, and the targeting of individuals without cause. Rather than improving, the family claims the situation has since worsened.
According to the communiqué, several members of the Nangaa family have been detained in prisons as well as in facilities run by the ANR and the military intelligence service, DEMIAP. The family alleges that four of its members have been sentenced to death since July 2024. Others are said to have been forced into exile, while some remain under movement restrictions, particularly in and around the city of Isiro.
The statement also describes repeated house searches, threats, and intimidation, alleging that security forces have carried out illegal and recurrent operations, including the invasion of family homes.
The accusations come against the backdrop of ongoing conflict and political instability in eastern DRC, where the AFC/M23 rebel alliance has seized large areas of territory, including the cities of Goma and Bukavu. The rebels say they are fighting against poor governance and for the rights of Kinyarwanda-speaking communities.
In its communiqué, the Nangaa family called on the international community, human rights organisations, and Congolese authorities to take urgent measures to end what it describes as persecution and to ensure the protection of its members' fundamental rights.
The family is demanding the immediate and unconditional release of Didier Ilaani Nangaa and all other relatives, it says, who are being held arbitrarily.
Wycliffe Nyamasege
