Moïse Katumbi says row is attempt by Joseph Kabila’s government to derail his candidacy

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

Moïse Katumbi, the most popular opposition leader in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, may not be eligible to stand in presidential elections scheduled later this year after it was revealed that he had held Italian citizenship from October 2000 until January 2017.

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The DRC’s attorney general said last week he had opened an investigation into allegations about Katumbi’s Italian nationality, first reported by Paris-based magazine Jeune Afrique.

Under Congo’s constitution, its nationals cannot hold dual citizenship and have to petition the government to regain their citizenship if they take up a foreign nationality.

The provision, however, is laxly enforced and many prominent politicians are believed to have second citizenships.

However, authorities are unlikely to be charitable to Katumbi, who is seen as the opposition’s leading candidate in December’s election.

The multimillionaire businessmen-turned-politician has said the accusations are the latest attempt by the Joseph Kabila’s government to derail his candidacy.

Katumbi was forced into exile in May 2016 when prosecutors accused him of hiring foreign mercenaries and he was sentenced the following month to three years in prison for real estate fraud. He says the charges against him are trumped up.

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According to a poll released last week, Katumbi would come first in the presidential election with 24% of the vote.

The 53-year-old has positioned himself as a potential consensus candidate among the DRC’s fractious opposition, and the citizenship row could remove one of Kabila’s most formidable opponents.

The town of San Vito dei Normanni in southern Italy confirmed in an email to Reuters that Katumbi held Italian citizenship for more than 16 years. Citizenship status in Italy is commonly registered by local town halls.

Katumbi’s spokesman did not respond to multiple requests from Reuters for comment.

In a video released on Monday, Katumbi said no one could contest his Congolese nationality, but did not deny he had held Italian citizenship.

Kabila, in power since 2001, is barred by term limits from standing for re-election. But opponents suspect he intends to try to change the constitution to run again, or further delay the poll, which was originally due in 2016.

The DRC has been hit by waves of violence, rebellions, protests and political turmoil in recent months, leading to worries about a new civil war like that which killed 5 million people between 1997 and 2003.

The security situation has deteriorated markedly as government authority has collapsed, emboldening rival militia groups who hold sway over large areas of territory, often competing for the DRC’s rich resources.

'The wars will never stop' - millions flee bloodshed as Congo falls apart Read more

More than 13 million Congolese need humanitarian aid, twice as many as last year, and 7.7 million face severe food insecurity, up 30% from a year ago, the United Nations said in March. More than 4.5 million people are displaced, the highest number in the DRC for more than 20 years.

Léonard She Okitundu, the DRC’s foreign minister, said this week that Kinshasa would not participate in a donor conference organised by the UN and the EU later this month, claiming the humanitarian community had exaggerated the crisis in parts of the RDC.

Okitundu also said the DRC wants the UN mission to leave the country in 2020, following a UN security council vote last week extending the peacekeepers’ mandate for another year.

Kabila told the UN last September that “the UN force cannot harbour the ambition to stay indefinitely”.