A Utah HS Football Player Father and Son Duo Bonded By Trying To Overthrow The Congolese Government
On today's Audiocraic: This is a wild story of a really badly engineered coup that never got off the ground. I don't know the exact motivations behind it but it seems like this father-son duo was living in Utah after leaving Congo. The father, Christian Malanga, a Congolese opposition figure living in exile in the United States, attempted a coup against President Felix Tshisekedi's government on May 19, 2024. Malanga, who had formed a government in exile called the "United Congolese Party" and declared himself president, led an armed group that briefly took control of the presidential palace in Kinshasa before being neutralized by security forces. The coup attempt resulted in Malanga's death, along with three others, while around 40 people were arrested, including Malanga's son and two other American citizens. Malanga had accused Tshisekedi's regime of being a dictatorship and aimed to overthrow him by force to establish his own government. The craziest thing is his son played football and had a full hudl highlight.
The coup did not go well at all and in the end, it takes a lot more than 40 dudes with Rifles to take over a country. What gets even more interesting is the Twitter reporter who is basically mocking these guys for being so bad at doing a coup.
I mean from the looks of things the two Americans involved are former drug dealers who previously may have done massive plea deals with the FBI and CIA.
It's just a super strange situation with two dudes who were formerly in the marijuana E-cigarette business.
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The current regime is pretty entrenched in letting foreign nations use their mineral rights. You can see how this group was pretty right in that the current regime is selling out the Congolese people for foreign nations to use their natural resources.
When Félix Tshisekedi took office as President of the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2019, he vowed to tackle the rampant corruption that has plagued the nation for decades. However, his administration has been mired in a series of high-profile corruption scandals, casting doubt on his commitment to reform. One of the most egregious instances is the revelation of tens of thousands of "ghost employees" on the government payroll, resulting in a staggering loss of over $66 million every month and nearly $800 million annually through payroll fraud.In 2022, leaked videos surfaced showing Tshisekedi's strategic advisor, Vidiye Tshimanga, offering mining concessions to foreign investors in exchange for bribes and kickbacks for the president and himself. The scandal forced Tshimanga to resign, but it raised serious questions about the integrity of the government's mining sector dealings.
Tshisekedi has been accused of employing foreign mercenaries to help maintain control over mineral rights and resources in the DRC. In late 2022, reports emerged that he had hired mercenaries from the Russian private military company Wagner Group to support his forces against the M23 rebel group in eastern DRC, which has been battling for control of territory rich in minerals like gold, tin, and coltan. While Tshisekedi denied hiring Wagner, UN experts confirmed the presence of white mercenary fighters alongside the Congolese army. There are also allegations that Tshisekedi has relied on other foreign fighters, including Chadian rebels, Rwandan Hutu rebels, and Zimbabwean military instructors, to bolster his forces in the mineral-rich east. Critics argue he is perpetuating the cycle of using foreign armed groups to control Congo's vast mineral wealth, similar to previous administrations. The presence of these mercenaries risks further destabilizing the region and enabling the illicit exploitation of minerals that have fueled conflict for decades. As Tshisekedi's term progresses, his ability to deliver on his anti-corruption promises, as well as his alleged reliance on foreign mercenaries to control resources, will be closely watched, both domestically and internationally.
You can see that the "United Congolese Party" definitely was trying to stop a corrupt regime, but at the same time, they showed up completely unprepared. It takes way more than 40 dudes with AK-47s to overthrow a country. But this story has gotten me way more invested in how there are 7 separate armies all in Congo fighting over the mines, there are Romanian mercenaries, Russian, and U.S. mercenaries at times, and more. Super weird complicated situation but crazy that an American raised highschool football player just ended up trying to overthrow the Congolese Government. The craziest is that he listens to Tyler Childers and loves Trump. He seems a little more redneck than a warlord from those videos.