The cell phone and the email account of DRC’s President Joseph Kabila has been wiretaped by British intelligence service. His close advisors were also monitored.
Goma, March 23rd, 2009. In the capital of the North-Kivu province of Congo, shaken by civil war, the Congolese government and the rebellion of the National Congress for the Defence of the People (NCDP) are signing a peace treaty. The negotiations were long, and closely monitored by the governments of the Great Lakes region including in Rwanda, where president Paul Kagame is suspected of supporting the armed militia. But the discussions were also closely followed more than 6 500 kilometers north of Congo, in London. Nobody knew at the time, but both parties were spied upon by the powerful satellite surveillance system set up by the British GCHQ.
According to interception tests dated from January 13th and 22nd, February 12th and 23rd, and December 12th 2009, from the Snowden archives, provided to Glenn Greenwald and Laura Poitras and analyzed by Le Mondein collaboration with The Intercept, most of the key players in the negotiations were targeted. Including Congolese president Joseph Kabila, whose cell phone number is on the list of surveillance targets, along with his Hotmail email address. Communications to and from his office, and of his close advisors, were also monitored.
Detailed knowledge of the Congolese army
Among the latter, the GCHQ followed the emails, landline and mobile phones of Augustin Katumba Mwanke, special advisor, Marcellin Cishambo, political advisor, general Denis Kalumbe Numi, military advisor. All their communication tools are listed as targets, as well as the North-Kivu’s governor’s, Julien Paluku Kahongya.
The Birtish agent also targeted several ministers, and did not forget to monitor key officers of the national army, which in 2009 is undergoing a full reconstruction. The GCHQ documents show detailed knowledge of the organization of the army and of the Congolese intelligence services, as well as a very good intuition in identifying promising low-ranking officers. Like the colonel Kahimbi Delphin, at the time tasked with fighting the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda, a Hutu militia composed of soldiers from Rwanda and members of militias who took part in the genocide, and which was probably supported by M. Kabila at some point.
The forests and mountains of North-Kivu, where the rebels live, are also discreetly monitored by the British services’s satellite surveillance. Alliances come and go depending on the opportunities emerging from the rivalries between Kigali, Kinshasa, and also Kampala, where Aronda Nyakairima, officer in the Uganda army who took part in the peace talks, was also spied upon by the GCHQ.
Did the British government, who gave Rwanda president Paul Kagame its full support, have information about his responsibility in the massacres he stands accused of in the East of Congo ? Sollicited by Le Monde, the GCHQ declined to comment.
Laurent Nkunda, the charismatic leader of the NCDP rebellion, whose commandment is mainly Tutsi, initially benefited from Rwanda’s support. “The British, under pressure from the international community and from NGOs who suspected Rwanda of war crimes in the region, may have wanted to make sure of the exact nature of Kigali’s relationship with some armed groups”, says a Western diplomat who was working in Kigali at the time.
M. Nkunda’s telecommunications, and those of his main lieutenants, were on the list of GCHQ targets. Like Bosco Ntaganda, who will end up fighting his former commander and will take his place before being arrested and handed over to the International Criminal Court. Nicknamed “Terminator” for his extreme violence, this mercenary served in the ranks of numerous armed groups in the East of the DRC. He’s currently on trial for crimes against humanity and war crimes.
French embassy targeted
The British services also take a very close look at the mining sector, which fuels the armed conflict and whose profits also come back to the pockets of some elected officials. The intercepts also target the Vice-minister in charge of mining, Victor Kasongo, the wealthy governor of Katanga, Moïse Katumbi, and Augustin Katamba Mwanke. This specail advisor of president Kabila rules over the mining sector, his office is a mandatory stop for all companies who want to discuss mining rights. Suspected by the United Nations of being responsible of looting the DRC’s riches, he died in a plane crash in February 2012.
The French embassy was also targeted by the British services. More precisely, the French ambassador, Pierre Jacquemot, whose cell phone was listed as a “priority 3” target – president Kabila’s phone was “priority 4”. Since then, M. Jacquemot “changed his phone number”, says one of his advisors. Contacted, the minister of communication and spokesperson for the Congolese government Lambert Mende said this surveillance system was an “act of unacceptable hostility”. “The DRC was the victim of this kind of meddling as soon as it got its independence after Patrice Lumumba’s killing by foreign agents. This is what it reminds me of”.
Those documents show :
- British spying: tentacles reach across Africa’s heads of stattes and business leaders
- British spies closely track mineral-rich Congo’s business dealings
- Britain spied on companies, diplomats and politicians in French-speaking Africa
- How the NSA and the GCHQ were able to tap mobile phones used on board commercial aircrafts, targeting first and foremost Air France.
- That the GCHQ monitored communications of key Israeli officials, even though the country is one of the United States’ closest allies.
- How the GCHQ carefully monitored technology specialists working for Internet and phone service providers, mainly in Africa.
- How British intelligence targeted Octave Klaba, founder of the largest European web hosting company OVH.
This list will be updated with each new publication.