Democratic Republic of the Congo, 2022 — palace coup conspiracy
Event Summary
This entry is coded 8 February 2022, corresponding to the 2022 coup allegations in the Democratic Republic of the Congo under President Felix Tshisekedi. On 8 February 2022, while Tshisekedi was attending the African Union summit in Addis Ababa, of which he was the chairperson, he received a report indicating a national security threat and left the summit early to deal with it. Presidential spokesman Tharcisse Kasongo Mwema said on national television that the government had found evidence of a security threat and that an investigation was ongoing.
The affair centered on the arrest, days earlier, of Francois Beya, Tshisekedi's special security adviser and one of the country's most influential intelligence figures, who had held senior positions under Mobutu Sese Seko and both Laurent-Desire and Joseph Kabila. Beya denied the allegations. Analysts were skeptical that a genuine coup had been planned, reading the arrest as Tshisekedi consolidating power by removing one of the last figures linked to former president Joseph Kabila, part of his broader break from Kabila's influence.
The 8 February 2022 coding matches Tshisekedi's early departure from the summit and the government's announcement.
Researched Details
Researched
Independent research, added record by record. Hover any label for what it means.
Sources
Editorial Note
Cross-Reference
Only one dataset carries it. One of the three reference datasets we check against carries this event; the others do not list it. That is not a contradiction — the datasets cover different periods and use different thresholds — but it means the record has had less outside corroboration.
Identifiers for finding this same event in the other datasets:
- Cline Center id
49002082022
How the match is made is described in crossref-report.md.
Outcome and Target
Coup Atlas research identifies the target as: Tshisekedi's government said it found a security threat and detained his security adviser.
Baseline coding: Plot discovered and disrupted before execution. Recorded leader fate: remained in office; not physically harmed. The baseline file does not name individual targets; researched names are kept in a separate layer.
Baseline Dataset Citation
Baseline Source-Document Entries
Associated Press
BBC Monitoring
This is the citation trail carried by the baseline dataset, grouped by outlet and rejoined from the line-wrapped original. Coup Atlas has not independently re-checked every document; read the original before citing a specific claim. URLs the import damaged beyond safe repair are shown as plain text and listed in citations-report.md. How this list is built →