{"id":2000119259,"date":"2026-07-14T10:26:03","date_gmt":"2026-07-14T08:26:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/?p=2000119259"},"modified":"2026-07-14T10:37:47","modified_gmt":"2026-07-14T08:37:47","slug":"congolese-lawyers-seek-icc-probe-into-alleged-state-abuses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/congolese-lawyers-seek-icc-probe-into-alleged-state-abuses\/","title":{"rendered":"Congolese lawyers seek ICC probe into alleged state abuses"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The complaint, submitted on July 10, 2026, details a series of actions by state authorities and individuals linked to the ruling establishment that the legal team avers amount to crimes against humanity in different parts of the country. The ICC prosecutor\u2019s office is expected to assess the submission before deciding whether any further action, including a possible preliminary examination, is warranted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lawyers cited 11 incidents, including deaths and injuries at Kinshasa\u2019s Makala prison during a 2024 attempted prison break, as well as killings in Lubumbashi, Kolwezi and other parts of the former Katanga region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Herv\u00e9 Diakiese, one of the lawyers involved in the case, accused the youth movement Force du Progr\u00e8s, which has been associated by critics with President F\u00e9lix Tshisekedi\u2019s ruling UDPS party, of involvement in some of the cited abuses. Human Rights Watch has previously raised concerns over violence involving members of the group during political unrest, while the UDPS has rejected accusations linking the party to such acts and said individuals may have been misusing the group\u2019s name.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Diakiese also accused some political actors of promoting ethnic-based rhetoric favouring members of the Luba community, President Tshisekedi\u2019s ethnic group.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere are statements showing a sense of superiority among some people from the President\u2019s community,\u201d he said, alleging that some officials and individuals close to power have used language suggesting that the Luba are not simply holders of political power but represent power itself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another lawyer involved in the complaint, Bernard Maingain, said the decision to seek international justice was motivated by Congolese institutions\u2019 to address the said abuses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cArticle 15 of the Rome Statute has been respected,\u201d Maingain said, referring to the provision that allows individuals or groups to submit information to the ICC prosecutor. He argued that the complaint had been properly filed and should be examined according to ICC procedures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The complaint was also submitted in Belgium because some of the individuals mentioned in the case are said to hold Belgian nationality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Following the filing of the complaint, the next stage will involve reviewing the<\/p>\n\n\n\n

allegations and determining whether they fall within the court\u2019s jurisdiction and meet the criteria for further action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Bernard Maingain, one of the lawyers involved in the complaint, said the decision to seek international justice was motivated by Congolese institutions\u2019 failure to address the abuses in question.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
The complaint, submitted on July 10, 2026, details a series of actions by state authorities and individuals linked to the ruling establishment that the legal team avers amount to crimes against humanity in different parts of the country.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lawyers representing Congolese victims, including people from the former Katanga province, have filed a complaint against the government of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) before the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, Netherlands.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":131,"featured_media":2000119260,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[151,99],"byline":[192],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-2000119259","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics-48","tag-editors-choice","tag-greatlakesnews","byline-wycliffe-nyamasege"],"bylines":[{"id":192,"name":"Wycliffe Nyamasege","slug":"wycliffe-nyamasege","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":131}],"contributors":[{"id":192,"name":"Wycliffe Nyamasege","slug":"wycliffe-nyamasege","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":131}],"featured_image":{"id":2000119260,"url":"https:\/\/cdn.igihe.com\/en\/2026\/07\/tshis-18-46b29.jpg","alt":"","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","width":1000,"height":667,"sizes":{"thumbnail":{"url":"https:\/\/cdn.igihe.com\/en\/2026\/07\/tshis-18-46b29.jpg","width":1000,"height":667},"medium":{"url":"https:\/\/cdn.igihe.com\/en\/2026\/07\/tshis-18-46b29.jpg","width":1000,"height":667},"medium_large":{"url":"https:\/\/cdn.igihe.com\/en\/2026\/07\/tshis-18-46b29.jpg","width":1000,"height":667},"large":{"url":"https:\/\/cdn.igihe.com\/en\/2026\/07\/tshis-18-46b29.jpg","width":1000,"height":667},"full":{"url":"https:\/\/cdn.igihe.com\/en\/2026\/07\/tshis-18-46b29.jpg","width":1000,"height":667}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2000119259","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/131"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2000119259"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2000119259\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2000119262,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2000119259\/revisions\/2000119262"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2000119260"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2000119259"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2000119259"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2000119259"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=2000119259"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=2000119259"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}