Kilalopress | August 28, 2025 – Espoir SADIKI SHEMUKOBYA and Da Silva KISUBA MUHIMA remain unlawfully detained in the cells of the National Intelligence Agency (ANR) in Isiro, where they’ve now spent 58 days without formal charges, without trial, and without a shred of evidence. Meanwhile, the destructive machinery of Kibali Gold Mine is in full operation — tearing through the very lands these men were trying to defend.
Their detention is not an administrative mishap. It is the glaring symptom of a system where exposing land injustice is now more dangerous than perpetrating it. Their fate currently hangs on a single political decision: a release order from the governor of Haut-Uélé, expected this Friday. A political order, not a judicial one. This is how “justice” functions in the mining zones of the DRC.
While these two activists rot in a dark cell, without care, without rights, their families — and dozens of others — are literally living outdoors. Expelled from their land, they now sleep under the open sky, with no shelter, no food, and no protection from the elements. Several have already fallen ill. Yet, not a single response from authorities. Not a tent. Not a doctor. Nothing. The government, as absent as it is complicit, looks the other way.
This mass eviction, carried out outside any legal framework, wasn’t even reported to the Ministry of Land Affairs. Worse still, government officials responsible for overseeing land procedures were deliberately sidelined. What is happening in Watsa is nothing less than a privately arranged operation, brokered behind closed doors between the governor of Haut-Uélé and Kibali Gold Mine. Congolese land is now being negotiated in the shadows — away from the law, away from the people, away from accountability.
As if that weren’t enough, a new wave of tensions is erupting in Watsa Moke, in the Mangbutu sector. The recent installation of PM 50-52 mining markers by Kibali Gold in a prospecting zone has sparked outrage. Residents see it as a clear show of force. Rumors of corruption are circulating: some local mining coordinators and community leaders are accused of accepting bribes to fast-track the project by bypassing key steps of the Congolese mining code.
The site is boiling with unrest. Local administrator Michel Tasile himself has denounced the total lack of communication from Kibali, admitting that this opacity has only fueled public mistrust. Artisanal miners are threatening to expose the backroom deals. Trust is broken. Tensions are high. And the mining company remains deafeningly silent. All the while, the machines keep advancing.
This is no longer just a matter of arbitrary detention. It’s a systematic campaign of predation. A foreign mining company draws its boundaries. The state erases its own. Those who speak out are jailed. Those who stay silent are bought off. And the communities? They disappear.
Espoir SADIKI and Da Silva KISUBA were simply doing their duty. On July 2nd, they went to the local administrator’s office for a routine courtesy visit. A standard administrative gesture. That same day, they were seized, handcuffed, and taken away like criminals. Because in today’s Democratic Republic of Congo, defending the environment has become an act of war.
Today, their freedom depends entirely on a political whim. One word from the governor would be enough. But that word never comes. Because as long as the bulldozers keep digging, those who resist must be silenced. That is why SADIKI and KISUBA remain behind bars: they are inconvenient. They expose the truth. They refuse to be bought. As one Kilalopress source put it: climate justice will continue to carry the voice of those they try to silence. Because if Kibali’s gold shines, the blood and tears it leaves behind stain the face of the entire Republic. And we will not look away.
By Kilalopress