At about 7:30 a.m. on September 29, 2025, military intelligence officers detained Aimé Paluku, a reporter with the state-owned RNTC broadcaster, in Butembo, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s eastern North Kivu province. It was the third time that he was taken into detention in as many days.
On September 27, the same officers detained Paluku for several hours at their Butembo headquarters and took his phone and laptop.
Paluku told CPJ the officers accused him of spying for the M23 because he had moved to the city in July from the rebel-controlled city of Goma, also in North Kivu. Paluku said his work as a journalist made them suspect that he might be part of a rebel communications team.
The M23, a key player in the Congo River Alliance (AFC) rebel coalition, took control of Goma in January as part of a decades-long conflict in the mineral-rich region.
Paluku said the same officers detained him again for several hours on September 28.
Paluku told CPJ that he was released around 5:30 p.m. on October 1 and his devices were returned.
As of early October, Evariste Kakule Somo, military governor of North Kivu province, did not answer CPJ’s calls to request comment and calls to South Kivu Governor Jean-Jacques Purusi did not connect.