Kabila's sister murdered

2008-01-17 14:53

Kinshasa - A half-sister of President Joseph Kabila has been murdered by intruders at her home in Kinshasa, a human rights group in the Democratic Republic of Congo said on Thursday.

Aimee Kabila Mulengela, a daughter of the president's late father and predecessor Laurent-Desire Kabila, was slain in the early hours of Wednesday morning, La Voix des Sans Voix (The Voice of the Voiceless) said.

In a statement, it said that several armed men - one of them wearing a presidential guard uniform - broke into her house in the Mont Ngafula district outside the capital, demanding money.

Aimee Kabila, who was in her 30s, tried to hide in the bathroom, where she was shot in the chest, after which the intruders "took their time to rummage through the house" and made off with mobile phones, a computer and a camera.

Aimee 'felt threatened'

The killing came on the anniversary of the death of her father, who became president of DRC in 1997 after the downfall of longtime Zairean dictator Mobutu Sese Seko and was murdered by one of his bodyguards on January 16 2001.

La Voix des Sans Voix said that she had felt threatened enough for her personal safety that she had alerted the United Nations mission in the DRC, known by its French acronym Monuc, a number of times.

Monuc confirmed that she had expressed such fears, and that its human rights section had intervened two years ago after she was detained for several weeks without an official motive by the special services of the Kinshasa police.

La Voix des Sans Voix and security sources said Aimee Kabila had, for several years, been demanding the return of her father's personal belongings, and that she had been at odds with members of the presidential family.

One security source said that there was nothing at this stage to say that her murder was any different from killings that happen under similar circumstances "every night in Kinshasa".

- AFP