Corneille Nangaa, the leader of the AFC/M23 coalition opposed to the government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, likened President Félix Tshisekedi to the biblical Jonah, who was swallowed by a great fish, and urged the country’s military to defy his authority.
In a speech marking the 66th anniversary of the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s independence on June 29, 2026, Corneille Nangaa said that President Félix Tshisekedi had become the country’s main problem, arguing that as long as he remains in power, peace will remain “as distant as the moon.”
Nangaa said:
“As we have always maintained, let us rid ourselves of Jonah so that the ship of Congo can finally reach its destination in peace. After seven years of living in darkness, enduring insults, suffering, and seeing things go from bad to worse, there is nothing preventing the Congolese people from uniting behind a common purpose.”
The politician said the time had come for Congolese people from all sectors of society to rise up, liberate their country, and oppose what he described as the government of President Félix Tshisekedi‘s plan to amend the Constitution.
He said:
“It is our responsibility to save our country, restore the rule of law, preserve social cohesion, and bring back freedom, justice, and the hope that the Congolese people have been deprived of for far too long. This honorable struggle is not the responsibility of AFC/M23 alone.”
Corneille Nangaa said that only after the Congolese people remove the current government would the country be able to embark on a path toward the peace, justice, social harmony, and development they have long desired.
He also called on members of the armed forces and police, whom he said had long been mistreated by President Félix Tshisekedi‘s administration, given lower priority than foreign mercenaries, and imprisoned on what he described as baseless grounds, to rise up and oppose the government.
He said:
“To the soldiers and police officers of Congo who are humiliated day after day, imprisoned for incomprehensible reasons by the very Commander-in-Chief who favors foreign troops and mercenaries over his own forces, stop protecting a government that is fighting its own people. Rise up and defy it.”
