U.S. Charges Four Americans in Congo Coup Attempt

The U.S. Department of Justice has charged four Americans for their involvement in an attempted coup in the Democratic Republic of Congo, following the repatriation of three of the men from Congo after their death sentences were commuted to life imprisonment. Marcel Malanga, Tyler Thompson, and Benjamin Zalman-Polun were part of a plan to assassinate government officials and establish a new regime called New Zaire, led by Malanga's father, Christian Malanga, who was killed during the coup attempt. A fourth man, Joseph Peter Moesser, arrested in Utah, is accused of aiding the plot as an expert in explosives. The charges include conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction and conspiracy to kill foreign individuals. The coup attempt, which occurred in May 2024, involved attacks on high-ranking officials and briefly seized the presidential office in Kinshasa. The defendants deny any wrongdoing and are expected to appear in court in the U.S.