An armed group calling itself the Mouvement Debout Katanga pour la Libération du Congo (MDKC) has claimed responsibility for the takeover of the towns of Lusinga and Nkonga in Mitwaba territory, according to a communiqué issued this week.
In the statement, the group said the action was the beginning of what it described as an armed struggle to “liberate Katanga and the Congo from tyranny.”
The movement accuses the government of President Félix Tshisekedi of corruption, tribalism, poor governance and the exploitation of Katanga’s mineral resources.
The communiqué also calls on officers and soldiers of the Congolese armed forces (FARDC), as well as Swahili-speaking communities and residents of Katanga, to distance themselves from the government and join the movement’s campaign.
The group further urged Congolese citizens to engage in what it called popular resistance and civil disobedience against the current administration.
It claimed its actions align with other armed resistance movements operating in several eastern provinces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, including Ituri, North Kivu and South Kivu.
The statement was signed by the movement’s spokesperson, Colonel Ngoy Kumwimba “Tigre.”
Authorities had not immediately commented on the claims, and the situation in the affected towns could not be independently verified.