The Kabeya Kamwanga Cartel A close look at the organised plunder of the DRC's resources by the Tshisekedi family

Since coming to power in 2019, Félix Tshisekedi has built a well-structured, organised network made up of his brothers, his wife and her family. The network has focused on plundering Katanga's mineral wealth.

Beyond that, Mr Tshisekedi and his tribal clan have devised a strategy of orchestrating a mass exodus of people from Kasai to Katanga and Kinshasa, with the aim of imposing a form of colonisation and stifling any challenge to their poor governance.

As a result, a number of Katangan notables, both civilian and military, have ended up in prison, held in secret cells, while others have been forced into exile. Mr Tshisekedi has also sown real terror in Katanga, with a number of well-documented killings.

In July 2025, Katangan NGOs and former Gécamines executives lodged a complaint in Belgium against nine members of the entourage and family of the Congolese president, Félix Tshisekedi.

The complaint was brought by a coalition of Katangan civil society organisations, led notably by Jean-Pierre Muteba, and joined by four former directors of the state mining company Gécamines. The nine people named are members of Mr Tshisekedi's family and inner circle, including First Lady Denise Nyakeru, as well as brothers, sons, nephews and sisters-in-law.

They are said to be involved in a scheme to grab wealth and lucrative subcontracting deals, or mining waste (slag heaps), in the provinces of Lualaba and Haut-Katanga.

On 14 October 2026, a series of raids was carried out in Belgium targeting members of the entourage and family of the president of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Félix Tshisekedi.

Simultaneous operations took place in Brussels and in the provinces of Flemish and Walloon Brabant, targeting homes of the head of state's relatives. They included an 860 sq m villa in the Fond'Roy district of Uccle, used as a second home by the presidential couple.

To lull the public, he keeps singing the same hypocritical, manipulative refrain about Rwandan aggression, a so-called aggression that supposedly prevents him from doing anything for the DRC's development, except steal and plunder the country.