According to several local sources in North Kivu, journalist and former Union pour la Nation Congolaise (UNC) member, Magloire Paluku, was assassinated on Wednesday, evening, 10th December 2025, in front of his house in Goma. Reports suggest he was shot with a pistol fitted with a silencer as he returned home, in what appears to be a targeted killing linked to internal tensions within the M23/AFC movement.
Paluku, once known as a media figure and political activist, had a long and controversial trajectory at the intersection of Congolese politics and armed movements. Initially based in Kinshasa at the beginning of the RDF–M23 war in November 2021, the highly ambitious Paluku was actively seeking a position in President Tshisekedi’s government. Despite multiple attempts, the appointment he hoped for never materialised.
After this prolonged wait, Paluku returned to Goma, where he initially presented himself as a defender of the Congolese population and a vocal critic of Criminal Paul Kagame’s invasion of DRC. However, to the surprise of many who had seen him in that light, he was later recruited into the M23/AFC by his longtime friend Corneille Nangaa, the current psuedo political leader of M23 - AFC movement. According to sources within RDF-M23/AFC, Paluku was attracted by promises of a role within the movement’s political hierarchy. As we all know, it is far easier to convince a greedy and ambitious person than someone guided by ideological principles.
After formally joining RDF–M23 in May 2025, Paluku was sent for a political cadre training course in Tshanzu, a sign that he was being groomed for a more prominent political function within the structure. His problems, however, begun when Nangaa proposed his name for the post of Deputy Governor of North Kivu under the RDF-M23/AFC administration of areas under their control.
According to these sources, Nangaa wanted someone highly educated, politically articulate and linguistically versatile in that role. Paluku, who spoke major Congolese languages and had media experience, was seen as an ideal candidate to compensate for the limitations of the appointed governor, Colonel Joseph Bahati Musanga, selected by self-proclaimed Major General Sultan Makenga. Colonel Bahati has limited formal education and does not speak Lingala or French, both key national languages in the DRC. For Nangaa, placing Paluku as deputy governor would help mask or offset these communication weaknesses at the leadership level in the office of North Kivu governorship.
However, this suggestion collided with Sultan Makenga’s own preferences. According to the same sources, Sultan Makenga overruled Corneille Nangaa’s proposal and instead ordered the appointment of Willy Manzi, a 100% Rwandan national and a nephew to ICC-convicted warlord Bosco Ntaganda, known as the “Terminator”. Manzi is known as one of the most ruthless and toxic figures within M23, he share many Criminal traits with his uncle, Bosco Ntaganda.
The rejection of his candidacy is said to have left Magloire Paluku deeply disgruntled. In a highly militarised, secretive and internally violent organisation like RDF-M23, open dissatisfaction is often perceived as disloyalty and a potential threat. Being visibly frustrated or challenging internal decisions in such structures can be extremely dangerous. All sources notes that his resentment and perceived loss of favour within the hierarchy section led by Maj Gen Sultan Makenga ultimately led to a death sentence issued against him. On the evening of Wednesday, 10th December 2025, as he returned to his residence in Goma, Paluku was shot dead at close range with a pistol equipped with a silencer. Sources with knowledge of M23’s internal security apparatus attribute the killing directly to an order from Makenga, acting on intelligence supplied to him by notorious Willy Manzi. This ruthless assassination has been interpreted as an internal settling of scores aimed at eliminating a now-inconvenient insider.
Paluku’s alleged involvement with M23/AFC is not an isolated episode in his biography. According to those familiar with his career, he had a long history of alignment, at different periods, with Criminal Paul Kagame's war mineral projects in the DRC. During the AFDL war led by Laurent-Désiré Kabila, he supported the RDF–AFDL offensive, working as a media animator during the military campaign up to Kinshasa. Each time a city fell, he would reportedly appear on radio to mobilise the population on behalf of the RDF-AFDL. When Laurent-Désiré Kabila became president, Paluku was rewarded with a position attached to the presidential press unit.
Later, when the RDF–RCD project began, he moved closer to this movement through Nande networks. With the emergence of the RDF-CNDP, led by General Laurent Nkunda, Paluku once again aligned himself with the new project led by a personal friend, Gen Laurent Nkunda, maintaining proximity to Nkunda’s circle. In contrast to those earlier episodes, however, his latest involvement in the RDF–M23/AFC structure appears to have ended in tragedy. The intricate power struggles, rivalries, competing loyalties and deep intrigues within RDF-M23/AFC, culminated in a decision to eliminate him.
Sources close to the movement point that the order to brutally assassinate Paluku was sanctioned by Maj Gen Sultan Makenga, based on information provided by Willy Manzi, the nephew of Bosco Ntaganda. During his trial before the International Criminal Court, Bosco Ntaganda himself repeatedly insisted that he was not Congolese but Rwandan, born in 1973 in Kinigi, Rwanda. This family connection is seen by some observers as another indication of RDF imprint on the M23 project and its inner workings.
For many in Goma and beyond, the reported assassination of Magloire Paluku is being read as a cautionary tale about the dangers of getting entangled in armed political projects driven by opaque agendas and external interests. A man who once presented himself as a defender of the Congolese population, then moved into the orbit of Criminal PaulKagame’s mineral wars, has met the same fate that has befallen many others in the history of Criminal Paul Kagame’s mondus operandi, silenced when he/she ceases to be useful, or when his ambition clashed with those more powerful than you.
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