Two journalists, an American and a Congolese, were arrested on Wednesday July 13 in Lubumbashi by the intelligence services. After meetings with members and relatives of a local armed militia, they were transferred to Kinshasa where they are still being held in the premises of the National Intelligence Agency (ANR).
With our correspondent in Kinshasa, Patient Ligodi
On his accreditation signed on June 16, 2022 by the Congolese Minister of Communication and Media, journalist Nicolas Niarchos was authorized to shoot series of reports on nature conservation, economy and culture.
He was arrested on Wednesday along with his fixer, a Congolese journalist named Joseph Kazadi Kamuanga. According to witnesses, the arrest took place in a restaurant in the suburbs of Lubumbashi while Nicolas Niarchos was conducting interviews with men whom some sources identify as Bakata Katanga militiamen. According to local civil society, these interviews were part of a series of reports with different actors involved in mining governance in this part of the country.
Interrogations still ongoing
Aged 33, the American who writes for The Nation and The New Yorker had already carried out other field reports in the DRC. For his part, Joseph Kazadi Kamuanga works in the local print media and is known for his reporting on the mining sector.
According to ANR sources, the hearings were still in progress on Monday morning on the links with the nature of the activities of these two journalists. For the moment, the American Embassy has not yet pronounced on this case.
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