The war between Rose Mutombo, Minister of State for Justice, and Antoine-Camille Boyau, Inspector General of the Judicial Police of the Public Prosecutor’s Office, is raging in Congolese political circles. At the center of the tensions: the management of secret research funds and the freezing of certain sensitive files relating to the embezzlement of public funds and tax evasion.
In a correspondence exchanged between the two protagonists and consulted by AfricaNews, the exchanges are stormy and the terms violent. Minister Mutombo wrote in November 2022 to Inspector General Boyau about the distribution key for secret funds, representing a sum of 789.37 million Congolese Francs. However, according to sources within the judicial police of the prosecution, eighteen draft information requisitions submitted by Boyau to the prosecution since November 2022 have never been signed.
The discovery of 25 containers seized in Kingabwa, in connection with the import of a data center by the company Vodacom, seems to be linked to this affair. Some suspect the Minister of working in favor of the economic operators targeted by these investigations. In March 2023, the Minister initiated disciplinary action against Inspector General Boyau, accusing him of “serious misconduct” for not reporting for his post after his restitution leave.
Boyau presented medical justifications to explain his absence, but that did not convince the minister, who maintained her decision to suspend him, citing the existence of a judicial file. However, Boyau contested this suspension, arguing that the ongoing legal proceedings had no direct link with the disciplinary action and could not justify an extended suspension beyond the legal deadline.
According to the camp of the suspended Inspector General, this sidelining aims to distance him from the management of secret research funds and to prevent him from carrying out investigations into sensitive files, in particular those involving Vodacom and the embezzlement the pay of civil servants by a former prime minister. They denounce the maneuvers of the minister to cover these discrepancies.
This open war between Rose Mutombo and Antoine-Camille Boyau highlights the issues of power and corruption that persist in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The consequences of this political battle are significant not only for those involved, but also for the stability of the country