Bujumbura: a second Congolese embassy official arrested and express transfers to Kinshasa amid regional tensions

SOS Médias Burundi

Bujumbura, July 30, 2025 – On the night of Monday, July 28, at 4:00 a.m., Félix Mweza, an official at the Embassy of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in Bujumbura, was arrested at his home by Burundian intelligence services. This arrest took place with the utmost discretion in Bujumbura, the commercial capital of the small east African nation, where all the country’s diplomatic missions are located. It comes just hours after the arrest, on July 27, of Laurent Ruboneka Musabwa, another Congolese embassy employee and a leading figure in the Banyamulenge community.

The two arrested agents were quickly transferred to Kinshasa aboard a special flight chartered by the Congolese government. They are now detained and interrogated by the ANR (National Intelligence Agency) and the DEMIAP (Military Detection of Anti-Patriotic Activities).

According to security sources, they are suspected of secret collaboration with the Congo River Alliance (AFC) and the M23.

The M23, a former Tutsi rebel group that took up arms again in late 2021, accusing the Congolese authorities of failing to honor their reintegration commitments, is affiliated with the AFC, a politico-military movement that has controlled the administration of the provincial capitals of North and South Kivu since the beginning of the year, as well as several strategic mineral-rich areas in eastern Congo.

Félix Mweza, a member of the Bashi community, at the heart of the investigations

Félix Mweza belongs to the Bashi community, as do Bertrand Bisimwa, president of the M23 political branch, and Marcellin Cishambo, former governor of South Kivu who recently joined the AFC/M23, also at the center of the investigations.

A close friend of Mweza, speaking on condition of anonymity, denounced an illegal arrest :

“We learned of his arrest on Monday evening through some colleagues at the embassy. It’s incomprehensible. How can diplomatic agents be arrested abroad without a clear legal framework? It’s a serious attack on their safety and dignity.”

The case of Laurent Ruboneka Musabwa

Laurent Ruboneka Musabwa, secretary of the Shikama Mutuality of the Banyamulenge and president of the association of survivors of the Gatumba massacre—where more than 160 members of this community were killed in August 2004 in a UNHCR-run camp near the Congolese border—was transferred to Kinshasa less than 24 hours after his arrest, amid the same official silence.

Authority silence and grey areas

No official communication has been issued by either the Burundian or Congolese authorities. This silence fuels speculation about the legality of the procedure and the geopolitical issues underlying these express transfers.

An explosive regional context

This case occurs in a particularly tense regional climate:

Burundi, a military ally of Kinshasa, has deployed 10,000 soldiers to the DRC to fight alongside the FARDC, the Congolese loyalist army, and the Wazalendo militias against the AFC/M23.

Gitega and Kinshasa accuse Kigali of supporting these rebel movements, while Rwanda rejects these accusations and denounces Kinshasa and Burundi’s alleged support for the FDLR, a Rwandan armed group accused of genocide against the Tutsi in 1994.

In this climate of fragile alliances and mistrust, the arrest of Félix Mweza and Laurent Ruboneka Musabwa appear to be a new episode in an intelligence war that extends beyond the diplomatic sphere.