Three Americans who had been sentenced to dying over a failed coup try within the Democratic Republic of Congo have been despatched again to the US on Tuesday, based on a spokeswoman for the Congolese presidency.
The American males have been amongst 37 individuals sentenced to death seven months in the past for collaborating in a Might 2024 assault on Congo’s authorities that included a gunfight close to the presidential palace. Congo’s presidency mentioned final week that the three Individuals — Marcel Malanga, Tyler Thompson and Benjamin Zalman-Polun — have been granted particular person clemency and had their death sentences commuted to life imprisonment.
The Congolese presidency’s spokeswoman, Tina Salama, posted photographs of them boarding a aircraft on Tuesday. She mentioned that the aircraft was certain for the US, the place the three males would serve their sentences.
Tammy Bruce, a State Division spokeswoman, confirmed on Tuesday that the three males had been transferred, telling a information convention that “they’re in our custody.” However there was no remark from the Justice Division as of Wednesday about the place, how, or if the boys would serve their sentences in the US.
The repatriation of the three males got here days after an American delegation met with Congo’s president, Felix Tshisekedi, in his nation’s capital, Kinshasa.
Mr. Tshisekedi has supplied the US a stake in his country’s vast mineral wealth as his authorities battles an armed insurrection that has captured massive parts of territory in jap Congo.
Depleted Congolese forces have to date been unable to mount an efficient counteroffensive in opposition to the armed group, M23, which is backed by Rwanda.
Massad Boulos, President Trump’s senior adviser for Africa, mentioned final week throughout his journey to Congo that the US and Congo would work on an settlement about minerals, with out providing additional particulars.
Congo holds massive reserves of supplies and minerals — together with cobalt, tin, tantalum and lithium — that the US has deemed critical for transitioning towards renewable vitality. In Congo, China dominates that sector.
Mr. Trump’s particular envoy for hostages, Adam Boehler, had linked the battle in jap Congo to the destiny of the three American males.
“The President of Congo is holding 3 Individuals now,” Mr. Boehler wrote on X in February. “Maybe it will be higher if Rwanda received the struggle?”
The Congolese authorities mentioned they’d foiled a coup try final Might after a gunfight erupted close to the presidential palace and armed males briefly occupied an workplace of the presidency. Safety forces killed the coup chief, Christian Malanga, a Congolese politician who ran a minor opposition get together and had streamed the assault reside.
Mr. Malanga’s American son, Marcel Malanga, has denied involvement in planning the coup. He mentioned that he and Mr. Thompson, a highschool pal, have been pressured to affix in whereas visiting his father. The third American citizen, Mr. Zalman-Polun, was a enterprise affiliate of Christian Malanga’s.
