Gen Delphin Kahimbi Died by Hanging Says President Tshisekedi

Former deputy chief of staff and head military intelligence Gen Delphin Kahimbi died by hanging according to preliminary findings read to cabinet by President Felix Tshisekedi.

Kahimbi a close relative of former President Joseph Kabila died on February 28 at his home. His wife said he had died of heart attack.

But rumors abounded that he was killed or committed suicide forcing Tshisekedi to order a probe into his death.

In the minutes of the cabinet meeting that sat Friday it is highlighted that Tshisekedi informed the cabinet members that preliminary findings showed Kahimbi had died by hanging.

“According to the evidence, it turns out to be a hanging,” the president is quoted telling cabinet members.

Tshisekedi said, he wanted the probe to be wrapped up quickly to “bring relief to the bereaved family”.

Kahimbi was one of the pillars of Joseph Kabila’s security system was suspended from duty and barred from foreign travels after interrogation by the National Security Council on order from the president’s office and barred from  foreign travels.

Chimpreports understands he was suspected of being involved in acts of subversion.

It is reported he was involved in the concealment of an illegally acquired cache of arms, claims that were yet to be proven by the internal investigation.

Kahimbi previously served as the deputy army commander of the North Kivu Military Region, a position that allowed him battle rebels loyal to Gen Laurent Nkunda.

He physically commanded specialized military operations in Kiwanja and Rutshuru area against the Nkunda’s National Congress for the Defense of the People (CNDP) rebel group,

Upon taking power last year, Tshisekedi kept Kahimbi as chief of military intelligence.

The departed general was recently sanctioned by the European Union for serious human rights abuses in Congo, including involvement in arbitrary arrests, torture, and ill-treatment of detainees.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) says as coordinator of the pre-disarmament, demobilization and reintegration process for combatants, Kahimbi alongside other officials failed to provide adequate food and health care to demobilized combatants, their wives, and children in a remote military camp in Congo in 2014.

Over 100 of them died there from starvation and disease.

“More recently, as commander of military intelligence, Kahimbi has been implicated in arbitrary arrests, detention, and mistreatment in Kinshasa in the context of repression against the political opposition and others,” said HRW.