“Stop being reckless with the Tutsi killings and making me look bad before the UN, NGOs!” Tshisekedi tells an FARDC commander in a damning leaked conversation in which he asks FARDC commander to “urgently” link him with notorious FDLR commander, “General” Omega.
The damning audio clip, of an undisputable conversation between Congolese regime head Felix Tshisekedi and an FARDC commander based in the Eastern Congo, is doing the rounds on social media platforms. In the audio clip, Tshisekedi starts by introducing himself as “bonjour generale, c’est le president ici” to the commander who is apparently taken by surprise, and immediately respond “oui!, bonjour Excellence”.
The ensuing conversation is undertaken in the Lingala language, where Tshisekedi takes to task the general on the other end of the phone why they lost Kitchanga and “what is that I hear about miscommunication in the command?” The audibly tensed general then starts to enumerate the issues, including lack of ammunition, food, and the superiority of M23 fighters and tells his boss that if the issues were solved, they would reorganize and re-capture Kitchanga, with the help of reinforcements coming from Goma.
Before the end of the conversation, Tshisekedi promises the general that for the problems he had told him (food for the soldiers and ammunition) he would be contacted by general Entumba who would send a helicopter with the supplies. But Thsisekedi gives him what he calls the most important and urgent task. To put him in touch with FDLR’s ‘General’ Omega.
The general on the other end of the line tells his Commander in Chief that he did not know how best to do that because Omega keeps changing numbers and if he happened to get hold of him (Omega), he would not know how to immediately reach the president since he also called him using ‘masked’ number. Tshisekedi is then heard asking him “how many minutes can I give you so I can call you again so that you can give me his number because this is urgent?” The general then say “in five minutes, Your Excellence.”
As AOB, Tshisekedi is heard telling the general that their attacks against the Tutsis were being conducted recklessly, and for that matter, they were making him look bad before the UN and NGOs because they were calling him incessantly asking him about the killings. He then tells him to inform Karayili to release the 10 Tutsis he is holding to get the UN and NGOs off his case.
Before ending the conversation, the president tells the general he would be calling him again in the morning, but in the meantime, “you (FARDC) should look for Omega’s people (FDLR) so that you can increase your strength so that by the morning when i call you, i want you to hear that you are talking from Kitchanga,” Tshisekedi instructed his army commander.