According to my military intelligence collections,OSINT and HUMINT sources,there is confirmation that the former commander of Republican guard(presidential guard unit) has beenn arrested.He was the commander of Kitona military base.Illunga Hughes Kampete was the commander of Republican guard during Joseph Kabila's time.
Illunga kampete has been sanctioned by the security council on several occasions.
Who is Illunga Kampete?
Gaston Hugues Ilunga Kampete, born in 1964, is a former FAZ of the DSP Armoured Battalion. At the fall of Mobutu in 1997, he held the rank of captain and assumed the function of commander of the armoured squadron of Chinese-made T-59 tanks. In 1998, he was the commander of the Armoured Regiment of the Land Force whose chief of staff was none other than Joseph Kabila.
He is also a former FAZ having evolved in the 313th Battalion of the 31st Para Brigade of the FAZ, which was first based in Kamina before being deployed to Bukavu in 1996. He entered as one of the youngest second lieutenants in his unit. The majority of his unit joined the AFDL in 1997.
Indeed, most of the senior officers and generals who made at the time of his appointment at the GR, were part of the 31st Para Brigade of the FAZ and the DSP. This is particularly the case of Colonel Monga, the T2 (intelligence) of the GR, another Mulubakat of Kabalo of the 311th battalion of the 31st Para Brigade of Kamina before also being redeployed to Bukavu in 1996. The majority of the soldiers of the 31st Para Brigade joined the AFDL, after being approached by the United States Embassy in Kinshasa. As a reminder, in March 1996, the Zairian Government sent to Masisi 800 soldiers of the Special Presidential Division (DSP), members of the Military Action and Intelligence Service (SARM) and Para-commando units of the 31st Para Brigade most of whom joined the AFDL. This is the case, for example, of the Kipushi counter-offensive in March 1997 when the DSP troops and the FAZ gendarmes were about to retake this town from the hands of the Rwandan-Ugandan AFDL troops. They were suddenly attacked from behind by their brothers in arms from the FAZ of the Kimbembe and Lido camps commanded by the late Colonel Nsau (or Nzau) and the victorious Colonel Mayala, today a general and Deputy Chief of Staff in charge of operations and intelligence of the Land Force alongside General Banze. The same General Mayala, in collusion with General Amisi Tango Four, following the M23 offensive in Bunagana on 6 July 2012, fled with 600 FARDC soldiers to Kisoro in Uganda, mysteriously abandoning a huge stock of heavy weapons, ammunition and tanks to the enemy.
General Gaston Hughes Ilunga Kampete is a Mulubakat from Kabalo in the Tanganyika district. He was and is a trusted man of President Kabila when he assumed the interim at the head of the Republican Guard at the time of the appointment of General Dieudonné Banze Lubunj as head of the Land Force. Despite his undeniable military qualities, his appointment also followed the military ethno-regionalism instituted by Kabila in the FARDC.
Kampete was referred to kabila regime by Oscar Gen Olenga who was a sort of mentor for him. Kampete often accompanied Oscar in the purchases of armored equipment in the former Eastern Europe (Serbia, Bulgaria, Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Czech Republic). Oscar always told kabila that Ilunga Kampete was his friend.
...if you want more on Kampete,you can read our earlier posts ...
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