Congo Opposition Party Spokesman Assassinated, State Says

Cherubin Okende Senga, a former minister and spokesman for the party of leading Congolese opposition leader Moise Katumbi, has been killed in an “assassination,” Patrick Muyaya, the government’s spokesman, said on Twitter.

(Bloomberg) — Cherubin Okende Senga, a former minister and spokesman for the party of leading Congolese opposition leader Moise Katumbi, has been killed in an “assassination,” Patrick Muyaya, the government’s spokesman, said on Twitter. 

Katumbi’s external public relations agency said Okende Senga’s body was found on Thursday and he had been beaten and shot. He went missing in his car outside the Constitutional Court in the capital, Kinshasa, on Wednesday.

 

 

 

The killing comes several weeks after Katumbi’s top adviser, Salomon Kalonda, was arrested in Kinshasa for allegedly carrying a weapon and contact with Rwanda, a country that Congo has accused of supporting rebels in the country. Katumbi’s party has denied the charges.

 

The opposition leader said the government was likely to blame for the death and, in a Twitter posting, called for an independent investigation.

 

(Updates with Katumbi’s reaction in last paragraph)

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