Peace Talks in Doha, Prisons in Kinshasa: AFC/M23 Challenges the DRC’s Security Leadership

The AFC/M23 coalition, which is battling the Government of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), has questioned what it calls a glaring contradiction in the country’s leadership-pursuing peace talks in Doha while expanding prisons and detaining senior officers in Kinshasa under opaque circumstances.

In recent weeks, several high-ranking FARDC officers - including generals and colonels - have been held for alleged collaboration with the enemy, treason, embezzlement, and attempting to harm the Head of State. The arrests, made without public judicial proceedings, have intensified concerns about due process and political instability.

Among those detained are Gen Christian Tshiwewe, former Chief of Staff of the army and security advisor to President Félix Tshisekedi; Gen Franck Ntumba, former head of military operations at the Presidential Palace; and Brig Gen Benjamin Katende Batubadila, former intelligence chief of the General Staff Guard. Others include John Tshibangu, Commander of the Fourth Military Region, Lt Gen Pacifique Masunzu, and Eric Ruhorimbere Ruhanga.

FARDC spokesperson Gen Maj Sylvain Ekenge Bomusa confirmed on November 22 that several officers have been detained for months, insisting investigations into “serious crimes” were still ongoing.

But AFC/M23 says the explanation is insufficient. In its statement, the group described it as “incomprehensible” that while the government is negotiating peace abroad, it is “building prisons in Kinshasa to detain people illegally.”

The movement accused the government of using these arrests as a political smokescreen, arguing that the generals are victims of injustice and that the official FARDC communication aims to divert public attention.

The detentions have sparked widespread outrage and prompted the Chairman of the AFC/M23 Forum, Corneille Nangaa, to publicly question what he calls the “death of leadership” in Kinshasa.

“How can a civilian detain generals in Kinshasa,” he asked, “while other generals wait their turn for arrest?”

In a message shared via X, Nangaa added:

“In Kinshasa, we are no longer led by leadership. We are led by prison and fear. Twenty FARDC generals are held in Ndolo Military Prison, in inhumane conditions. Two have died, and their bodies have not been recovered. Others have disappeared.”

He accused the government of continuing to add names to an “illegal detention list,” calling it a strategy of intimidation rather than governance.

According to AFC/M23, while the Doha discussions focused on Congolese unity, justice, military cohesion, forgiveness, and transparent governance, the situation in Kinshasa reflects the opposite - marked by arbitrary arrests, military distrust, and a politics of fear.

The group asserts that the Doha process cannot be effective while people “are being arrested without reason” in the DRC.

The movement further warns that the persistent arrests have weakened the army:

“When a regime routinely arrests generals without transparent trials or clear reasons, trust collapses. Generals begin to suspect one another; soldiers begin to doubt. Respect is replaced by fear, and the military becomes fragile.”

A divided and intimidated army, they argue, risks becoming “weak, manipulable, and a source of internal and regional conflict.”

AFC/M23 also raised alarms over what it describes as the targeting of Swahili-speaking officers, a claim the government denies. The group argues that such discrimination, if proven, could have dangerous consequences, recalling the DRC’s long history of division driven by language and identity.

They warned that bringing these divisions into the army is “reckless and short-sighted,” adding that “no regime survives long while mistreating its own army.”

AFC/M23 concluded by saying that unless the government becomes transparent, ends secret detentions, and rebuilds trust within the military, the DRC will continue to project a false image - “looking good in front of the cameras while the army weakens behind the scenes.”