The arrest in Kinshasa on Tuesday 30 May of Salomon Kalonda, one of Moïse Katumbi’s close associates, has generated a series of condemnations in Congolese opposition circles.
On his Tweeter account, Moïse Katumbi described the “arbitrary and illegal arrest” of his special adviser Salomon Kalonda at N’djili airport as “a villainous kidnapping” with no legal basis.
Augustin Matata Ponyo “protests against this type of dictatorship and calls for his release”.
The abduction of political actors to silence them is a reprehensible practice typical of dictatorships”, adds Delly Sesanga.
Martin Fayuku agrees:
“The brutal and illegal arrest of Salomon Kalonda is a further illustration of the dictatorial drift underway in the DRC. The curtailment of public freedoms and arbitrariness is taking our country backwards. We are witnessing the harbingers of a regime on its last legs”.
Message from Kindu
In a statement read out at the Ensemble pour la République party headquarters in Kinshasa on Tuesday, the party’s secretary general, Dieudonné Bolengetenge, also condemned the “kidnapping”. At the same time, he said that the party had been the target of several unjustified acts of provocation.
Meanwhile, members of the Ensemble pour la République federation in Maniema held an emergency meeting in Kindu, shouting “Free Salomon”: “Free Salomon”.
They condemned “the retreat of democracy in the DRC through the restriction of political freedoms, arrests and kidnappings of political opposition figures, just a few months before the elections”.
Salomon Idi Kalonda was arrested on Tuesday at N’djili airport and taken to an as yet unknown location. The reasons for his arrest are not yet known.