The Superior Council of Audiovisual and Communication (CSAC) of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has said that French officials have not yet acted on a recent complaint filed in the wake of Saturday night's attack against its CSAC president, Christian Bosembe.
Shocked and outraged by the brutal assault on Bosembe by a group of males, who claim to be "combatants" while he was on official business in the French capital city of Paris, High Councilor of the DRC, and deputy rapporteur of the CSAC, Serge Ndjibu, criticized the French authorities for failing to provide the Congolese official with even a bare minimum of protection prior to the incident.
"You know, when the president of an institution that supports democracy is attacked, it is democracy that is attacked, and that this happened in a country that wants to be the model of democracy, this is really a paradox," Ndjibu told Sputnik. "And what further inflames our indignation is the fact that nothing has been done."
High Councilor of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Deputy Rapporteur of the Superior Council of Audiovisual and Communication (CSAC), Serge Ndjibu.
The deputy Rapporteur of the CSAC said that the Congolese media regulator had requested further clarification of the incident. He pointed out that on Monday, the CSAC reached out to French officials to not only get a better understanding of what had happened, but also to ensure that a thorough investigation takes place to identify, apprehend, prosecute, and impose severe penalties on those responsible for the violent attack against the Congolese official.
He also revealed that the Congolese broadcasting body planned to meet with France's ambassador to the DR Congo in order "to get more clarification and find out how the filing is and know what steps have been taken so far to find all these criminals."
According to Ndjibu, the incident was initially brought to light via social media during the wee hours of Sunday morning.
"At first, the criminals committed their offense, they filmed it themselves, they posted it on social networks and I saw it on social networks on Saturday, it was at 2 o'clock in the morning, I immediately called the CSAC president," Ndjibu stated. "He was upset and shocked, we spoke very briefly, because he was not in good shape then, for all the details."
CSAC President Christian Bosembe reassured Ndjibu that he had beefed up his own security measures following the attack.