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Christian Malanga

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
In this Congolese name, the surname is Malanga and the post-surname is Musumari.

Christian Malanga
Official photo provided by the United Congolese Party, 2014
Personal details
Born
Christian Malanga Musumari

(1983-01-02)2 January 1983
Kinshasa, Zaire
Died19 May 2024(2024-05-19) (aged 41)
Kinshasa, DR Congo
Cause of deathGunshot wounds
Political partyUnited Congolese Party
OccupationPolitician, businessman, military officer
Websitehttps://christianmalanga.com/

Christian Malanga Musumari (2 January 1983 – 19 May 2024), was a Congolese-American[1] politician, businessman, and military officer. He was leader of the United Congolese Party (UCP), a national political party he formed after his experiences in the Democratic Republic of the Congo's widely disputed parliamentary elections in 2011. In 2017, he established the New Zaire Government in Exile and proclaimed himself its president. Malanga attempted to overthrow the government of the DRC on 19 May 2024. The attempt failed with Malanga being shot dead and his son Marcel being arrested.[2]

Early life

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Malanga was born to Chantal Kibonge and Joseph Itejo Malanga in the capital city of Kinshasa. His father was born and raised in Mangai.[3] His mother was a local of Ngaba, where Malanga's parents met. They settled outside of the city of Kinshasa, where his mother worked at a local market and his father worked as a supervisor at a General Motors plant in Kinshasa proper.[3] In 1993, Malanga's family relocated to a refugee camp in Swaziland.[3] Malanga went to primary school at Saint Paul's Methodist Primary School in Swaziland.[citation needed]

In 1998, Malanga moved to Salt Lake City, Utah in the United States as a political refugee with asylum status.[4] Malanga joined the Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps (JROTC) program by the United States Armed Forces.[5]

Malanga had one son with Brittany Sawyer, Marcel. Malanga was convicted in 2001 of assault with a firearm and was given a 30-day jail sentence and three years of probation. He also faced charges of domestic violence and disturbing the peace which were dismissed. Legal records also showed that he had been involved in a custody and child support dispute.[6]

In Utah he owned several small businesses until 2006, when he cofounded the DRC non-profit Africa Helpline Society.[7] He worked directly with children at the on-site orphanage and with the organization's global outreach initiatives. Malanga used his experiences to simultaneously form his own non-governmental organization, Friends of America, during this time period.[citation needed]

Early career

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Military service

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Malanga in Congolese Military Uniform
Malanga in Congolese Battle Uniform, 2007

In June 2006, Malanga returned to the DRC to participate in military service, and in 2007 he achieved the rank of captain in the Congolese Military. His principal duties during service included brigade morale officer and command of a training company with responsibility for approximately 235 men under his command.[8][4]

Malanga Congo

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After his tour of military duty ended in 2010 Malanga started his own company, Malanga Congo, which hired 250 employees in several sectors to perform public works and contracting projects.[citation needed] These projects included creating and maintaining water purification and bottling plants and several mining operations.[citation needed] These businesses proved profitable enough to provide the platform from which he launched his political career that same year.[3]

Political career

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2011 parliamentary elections

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Main article: 2011 Democratic Republic of the Congo general election

In 2011 Malanga attended a general assembly meeting of all political opposition leaders to select a candidate to challenge the then President Joseph Kabila.[citation needed] When the general assembly proved to be indecisive, Malanga decided to run in the parliamentary election as an independent opposition candidate.[9][10] He was detained two days before the parliamentary elections by government security forces and held for more than two weeks.[citation needed] Upon his release he was offered a position as National Youth President.[citation needed] He declined the position.[citation needed]

Malanga reported the situation to the U.S. Embassy and then returned to the USA where he lived with his family. He continued to raise awareness in Washington DC and throughout the US regarding the issues facing the Congo.[11]

United Congolese Party

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Main article: United Congolese Party

Malanga returned to the United States in 2012.[12] He founded his own political party, the US-registered United Congolese Party (UCP).[12] Malanga campaigned amid the Congolese diaspora in the United States, Europe and South Africa in preparation for the next round of national elections in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.[3]

Malanga at the IRF Summit at Capitol Hill, December 2013

On 12 December 2013, Malanga participated at a convening of the International Religious Freedom (IRF) Roundtable, a coalition of NGOs in Washington DC. The IRF Roundtable[13] is an informal group of individuals from all faiths and none, including governments, who gather regularly to discuss IRF issues on an off-the-record basis. The IRF Roundtable has attracted representatives of 800 organizations and launched more than 200 multi-faith initiatives. These initiatives have been deployed by and for people from across the theological and political spectrum as well as across the globe.

In 2016, he and members of his UCP were part of a British-backed delegation of African Leaders Programme that traveled to Tbilisi, Georgia.

Britain groomed him as a potential leader in waiting, sending him and a group of his supporters to a political conference in Tbilisi, Georgia in 2016.[12] The African Leaders Programme was to learn how to fight against corruption, reform fiscal policy and tax systems, privatize state-owned enterprises, build a welfare system, create a competitive education and healthcare system, and streamline procurement.[citation needed] The conference took place at the National Parliamentary Library of Georgia. The delegation worked with policymakers to strengthen the party's economic plan.[14]

Vatican
Archbishop Aimè Mandio Akuma (left) Sister Therese (middle) Malanga (right), April 2017

On 29 April 2017 at the basilica Santo Spirito in Sassia in Rome, Malanga received the rank of knight of the order of Saints Peter and Paul. After this distinction, he received the support of the Catholic Church in Congo.[2][15]

New Zaire Government in Exile

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A meeting of the New Zaire government-in-exile in Brussels

On 17 May 2017, Malanga created an alternative government, the New Zaire Government in Exile, in Brussels, Belgium. He declared himself to be the President of New Zaire.[12][16][17][18][19][20][21] The Democratic Republic of the Congo previously used the name "Zaire" between 1971 and 1997, during the rule of dictator Mobutu Sese Seko, and New Zaire uses the national flag from this period.[19][22]

Dino Mahtani, an independent researcher into African issues and former political adviser to the United Nations in Congo, reported that Malanga was obsessed with capturing power in Congo and in 2018 Congolese authorities suspected that he was involved in a purported plot to kill then-President Joseph Kabila.[23]

The New Zaire Government in Exile maintains a website where it details plans including creating business opportunities and reforming Congo's security services. As of 25 May 2024, the website still refers to Malanga as President of New Zaire despite the fact that he died on 19 May 2024.[21]

Photos on Facebook and the website show Malanga meeting then-senior American Republican representatives Rob Bishop and Peter King. Bishop has stated that he does not recall the meeting and couldn't tell when the photo was taken.[23]

A DRC army spokesmen Sylvain Ekenge claimed that Malanga and the New Zaire Government in Exile had previously planned a coup in 2017 but that it was aborted in its early stages.[19]

Attempted coup and death

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Main article: 2024 Democratic Republic of the Congo coup attempt

Forces loyal to the New Zaire Government in Exile attempted to overthrow the Congolese government on 19 May 2024. The attempted coup was quickly suppressed by security forces, with Malanga being killed and his 21-year-old son Marcel being captured in the process. Malanga was 41.[24][19][2][25] Due to the ability for the plotters to easily smuggle arms and ammunition into the DRC, as well as their ease at accessing important government buildings, the Lutte pour le changement assessed that Congolese intelligence was either involved in the coup attempt, or utterly inept.[20] A number of foreign individuals, including at least three American citizens, and one British citizen, was involved in the coup alongside members of the New Zaire Government in Exile.[19][22]

The coup came during a crisis in sitting president Félix Tshisekedi's Union for Democracy and Social Progress party failing to form a governing coalition and naming a speaker of parliament.[22] During the coup, Malanga uploaded a video to his personal Facebook account inside the Palace of the Nation saying "Felix, you’re out. We are coming for you."[26]

References

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  1. ^ US-Amerikaner und Briten laut Armee an Putschversuch beteiligt, Die Zeit, 20 May 2024
  2. ^ a b c "RD Congo: le capitaine Christian Malanga tué dans une tentative de coup d'Etat à Kinshasa". L'Horizon Africain. 19 May 2024. Retrieved 19 May 2024.
  3. ^ a b c d e "United Congolese Party – Meet President Malanga". United Congolese Party. Archived from the original on 26 December 2018. Retrieved 26 December 2018.
  4. ^ a b "Christian Malanga, l'homme au cœur de la « tentative de coup d'Etat » déjouée par les FARDC". Radio Okapi. Retrieved 23 May 2024.
  5. ^ "Attaque à Kinshasa : ce que l'armée congolaise a dit sur "une tentative de coup d'Etat"". BBC News (in French). 19 May 2024. Archived from the original on 19 May 2024. Retrieved 19 May 2024.
  6. ^ "Americans in alleged Congo coup plot formed an unlikely band". Associated Press. 21 May 2024. Retrieved 21 May 2024.
  7. ^ Africa Helpline Society Mission.[dead link]
  8. ^ "Christian Malanga Na Washington DC USA". BANA ZAÏRE. 15 February 2013. Archived from the original on 27 June 2014 – via YouTube. Malanga on Military Service at the Brookings Institution in Washington DC
  9. ^ "Congo Planet news article on 2011 parliamentary candidates". Archived from the original on 2 February 2014. Retrieved 13 January 2014.
  10. ^ Liste des candidats du parti à la députation nationale par circonscription[dead link] Archived 24 December 2011 at the Wayback Machine National Independent Electoral Committee 2011 Independent candidate list. Malanga was candidate 133 in the district of Idiofa.
  11. ^ Jennifer Fierberg (20 August 2013). "A beautiful country with poor leadership". Inyenyeri News. Archived from the original on 2 February 2014. Retrieved 13 January 2014.
  12. ^ a b c d AFRIKA/D.R. KONGO - Der merkwürdige Staatsstreich in Kinshasa, Agenzia Fides, 20 May 2024
  13. ^ "International Religious Freedom Roundtable – Coalition – Washington DC". International Religious Freedom Roundtable. Retrieved 21 May 2024.
  14. ^ "BEC African Leaders Program". bec.ge. bec. Archived from the original on 23 December 2018. Retrieved 23 December 2018.
  15. ^ "President Malanga Knighted in Vatican 04/29/2017". Youtube. United Congolese Party. Archived from the original on 26 February 2022. Retrieved 26 December 2018.
  16. ^ "African leaders condemn failed coup attempt in DR Congo". english.news.cn. 21 May 2024. Retrieved 21 May 2024.
  17. ^ "With Kabila gone, change can be rapid, and great for the people of the D.R.Congo". www.panafricanvisions.com. panafricanvisions.
  18. ^ "Congo's general elections 'will not happen', says leading opponent". churchnewspaper.com. Church of England Newspaper. Archived from the original on 24 December 2018. Retrieved 23 December 2018.
  19. ^ a b c d e "Explainer: The foiled coup in DR Congo: Here's what to know". Reuters. Retrieved 24 May 2024.
  20. ^ a b Ineke, Mules. "DRC: Questions abound after thwarted coup". Deutsche Welle. Retrieved 24 May 2024.
  21. ^ a b "Who is President Malanga? | New Zaïre".
  22. ^ a b c "Democratic Republic of Congo: Army says coup foiled". Deutsche Welle. Retrieved 24 May 2024.
  23. ^ a b "Americans in alleged Congo coup plot formed an unlikely band". AP News. 20 May 2024. Retrieved 21 May 2024.
  24. ^ Malkia, Christina; Asadu, Chinedu (19 May 2024). "Congolese army says shootout in the capital is failed coup, perpetrators arrested". AP News. Archived from the original on 19 May 2024. Retrieved 19 May 2024.
  25. ^ Malkia, Christina; Asadu, Chinedu (19 May 2024). "Congolese army says shootout in the capital is failed coup, perpetrators arrested". AP News. Archived from the original on 19 May 2024. Retrieved 19 May 2024.
  26. ^ Harper, Daniel (19 May 2024). "Attempted coup foiled in the Democratic Republic of Congo". Euronews. Retrieved 24 May 2024.
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