Agents of the Congolese national intelligence agency arrested Kambidi, editor-in-chief of Christian Radio Télévision Chrétienne, or RTC, in the central town of Kananga, according to local press freedom group Journaliste En Danger. Kambidi was being held without charge in late year, according to news reports.
Kambidi and another RTC journalist had received death threats in connection with a news program that aired August 16, RTC Director Charles Boniface Bayakwabo told Journaliste En Danger. During the program, a local opposition politician suggested that President Joseph Kabila’s regime was nearing an end. The politician was reacting to the station’s rebroadcast of an interview conducted by UN-backed Radio Okapi with John Tshibangu, an army officer turned rebel, according to news reports. In the interview, Tshibangu announced the creation of an armed rebel movement.
Kambidi was transferred to the capital, Kinshasa, on August 30, Bayakwabo said.