The attempted coup, which targeted the residence of Congolese politician Vital Kamerhe and the country\u2019s presidential palace, was led by opposition leader Christian Malanga, who was killed in a gun battle between the armed putschists and the presidential guards, according to army spokesman General Sylvain Ekenge. Ekenge also claimed Malanga was a US citizen, though the State Department said later it had no records of him. <\/p>\n
Ekenge named three other Americans, identified as Benjamin Reuben Zalman-Polun, Patrick Ducey, and Taylor Thomson were involved in the foiled coup. <\/p>\n
\u201cPatrick Ducey and Taylor Thomson are the same person who have two different identities. We\u2019re going to check his passport,\u201d he added. <\/p>\n
US State Department Spokesperson Matthew Miller said the US is aware of two other individuals \u201creported to be\u201d US citizens who are in custody after the failed coup attempt. Miller said privacy laws prevented him from confirming whether or not the US had reached out to the Congolese government to be granted consular access to the two individuals. <\/p>\n
US ambassador to the DRC, Lucy Tamlyn, said in a post on social media platform X, that she was \u201cshocked\u201d by reports of the attempted coup, adding that her country \u201cwill cooperate with the DRC authorities to the fullest extent as they investigate these criminal acts and hold accountable any US citizen involved in criminal acts.\u201d <\/p>\n
It is not immediately known whether President Felix Tshisekedi, who secured re-election for a second term after last December\u2019s disputed vote was at the presidential palace during the attack. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe tried it without success in 2017,\u201d Ekenge said but did not provide further details. <\/p>\n
Malanga, 41, who had been exiled in the US, headed the United Congolese Party which describes itself as an \u201copposition political party-in-exile.\u201d <\/p>\n
Flanked by his son and other armed men in military fatigue, Malanga was seen in a live-streamed video posted on his Facebook page railing against Tshisekedi\u2019s government and Kamerhe on the morning of the attack, accusing them of doing \u201cmany stupid things in this country,\u201d according to Reuters. <\/p>\n
A DRC government statement commended the \u201cprompt reaction\u201d of the DRC\u2019s security forces in foiling the attack, stating that two police officers stationed at politician Kamerhe\u2019s home \u201cwere killed on the spot.\u201d <\/p>\n
The DRC, Sub-Saharan Africa\u2019s largest nation, is one of the five poorest countries in the world, according to the World Bank, despite its vast mineral wealth. <\/p>\n
Parts of the Central African nation are almost overrun by armed militia groups who mastermind deadly attacks against civilians in their battle for territory and control over the country\u2019s natural resources. <\/p>\n
Sub-Saharan Africa has grappled with a spate of coups, with the latest happening last August in Gabon, the DRC\u2019s Central African neighbor. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The attempted coup, which targeted the residence of Congolese politician Vital Kamerhe and the country\u2019s presidential palace, was led by opposition leader Christian Malanga, who was killed in a gun battle between the armed putschists and the presidential guards, according to army spokesman General Sylvain Ekenge. Ekenge also claimed Malanga was a US citizen, though the State Department said later it <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3460,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-3459","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3459","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3459"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3459\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3460"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3459"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3459"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3459"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}