Kinshasa, April 21, 2025—The Committee to Protect Journalists is alarmed by the mistreatment of Congolese journalist Émérite Amisi Musada, who was abducted by men in civilian clothes on April 15 after being threatened over his reporting on the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, and calls for authorities to hold those responsible to account.
Four days after Amisi, a reporter with the privately owned news website Déboutrdc.net, went missing in Bukavu, the capital of the DRC’s eastern South Kivu province, he was found naked on the edge of nearby Lake Kivu on April 19. Amisi, who spoke with CPJ from his bed at a Bukavu hospital, said that he was taken and tortured by unidentified men. Bukavu is under the control of the M23 rebel group, which in recent months has advanced in the country’s eastern provinces against the DRC military.
“DRC authorities and the M23 rebels, who now control the city of Bukavu, must conduct thorough investigations into the abduction and mistreatment of journalist Émérite Amisi Musada and ensure accountability,” said Angela Quintal, CPJ’s Africa regional director, from Luanda, Angola. “The safety of journalists must be a priority for all sides in the fighting, which has intensified in the eastern DRC.”
Amisi told CPJ that when he left his house, “I was blocked by four people in civilian clothes, one of whom sprayed a gas in my nose to the point of losing consciousness.”
When he woke up in a house somewhere, Amisi was beaten with a stick, sodomized with a rubber rod, and “subjected to a long interrogation about my reports on the war in the east of the country,” he said.
Four men with revolvers interrogated him about his outlet, including the password to gain administrative access to the siteand sources for their war coverage. When Amisi did not provide them with the information, the men stripped him, put him in their vehicle, and left him at the edge of the lake, where he was found by a civilian and taken to the hospital, he said.
Amisi has published several articles on the clashes between M23 and the military.
On April 10, Amisi had received threatening WhatsApp messages, which CPJ reviewed, from a sender who identified themselves as a DRC army general named Guy Kapinga.
One message, addressed to “Rwandan traitors” and written in the local Lingala language, said: “You are eating up the money of the West in order to sabotage the efforts of the head of state. I know your church well and we are keeping an eye on you. You will not flee Bukavu, continue to publish articles against the head of state and the army. We will have you in a short time.”
CPJ repeatedly called the number that sent the messages, but the line did not connect. CPJ’s calls to DRC military spokesperson Sylvain Ekenge went unanswered, and CPJ’s messages to M23 spokesperson Lawrence Kanyuka also went unanswered.
This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by CPJ Staff.