Radio show suspended, prominent musician reprimanded after criticising DRC army in fight against M23

A Congolese Army soldier accused of desertion and cowardice when fighting M23 rebels looks on while sitting in the dock during a trial at the North Kivu military court in Goma, on 3 May 2024. (Glody Murhabazi/ AFP)

• A radio presenter has been suspended and a musician has promised to be more diplomatic after they discussed the state of the DRC’s war against M23.
• Koffi Olomide said the army was being “slapped” around by the rebel group.
• More than 30 soldiers have been sentenced to death for “cowardice” in the face of M23 since May this year.

Criticism of the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s (DRC) army has seen a prominent morning radio show taken off the air, while an artist has promised to be more diplomatic in the future when talking about the fight against M23 rebels.

“There is no war. We are beaten, we are slapped, we are made to do whatever they [M23] want,” the eccentric rhumba music stalwart Antoine Christophe Agbepa Mumba, better known as Koffi Olomide, said about the war between government troops and rebels.

The army was “weak”, he said.

Olomide, who last year sang praises of President Felix Tshisekedi, was being interviewed by journalist Jessy Kabasele on the “Le Panier, the Morning Show” aired by the state-controlled Congolese National Radio and Television (RTNC) on Wednesday.

On Thursday, the Higher Council for Audiovisual and Communication (CSAC) said Olomide’s comments were “in violation of the CSAC directive relating to broadcasts on the progress of military operations at the war front”.

Kasabele’s show was shelved, and the RTNC suspended him.

READ | Nyasha Mpani and Webster Zambara: DRC crisis: UN exit, M23 rebellion and SA’s military challenges

After meeting CSAC, Olomide expressed regret for his tone.

“It was more of an educational session than anything else,” he said of discussions with the regulator.

“I remembered that I am also an ambassador of Congolese culture and should be a little more diplomatic in my speech, even if what I say is true and founded.”

Olomide’s interview came a week after 25 FARDC soldiers were given the death penalty for fleeing the battle with M23 rebels.

They were the second batch of soldiers to be sentenced after the DRC enacted a law against desertion.

The first group of eight soldiers were sentenced to death for “desertion” and “cowardice” in May.

Burundi also has its army fighting in eastern DRC, through a bilateral agreement with Kinshasa. 

Early this month, Burundian soldiers who refused fight in the DRC were jailed for between eight and 10 years.

Initially, Burundi had been part of an East African Community (EAC) force that was replaced by SAMIDRC, the SA-led SADC force deployed against M23.

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