The Congolese government has issued its first detailed response to the October 7 incident in Mounkala, disputing the account given a day earlier by Frédéric Ntumi’s Conseil National des Républicains, CNR in acronym.
In a statement dated October 8, the government said a DGSP unit traveling from Brazzaville toward Mindouli encountered three men in civilian clothes near Mounkala who were openly carrying weapons of war, including two PMAK rifles and a machine gun.
According to the government, the men fled toward Ntumi’s compound when DGSP officers attempted to stop them. Authorities said the men abandoned their vehicle, which the DGSP later burned because it was believed to have been used to transport the weapons.
The government also denied reports of a gun battle. It said no exchange of fire took place and that DGSP personnel fired only warning shots into the air as the men fled. It added that there were no deaths or injuries during the October 7 incident.
That version contradicts the CNR’s statement, which accused DGSP forces of entering Ntumi’s site, firing live ammunition and burning vehicles belonging to him. The CNR also said residents fled into nearby forests and accused the government of threatening the peace process in the Pool. A local report published October 8 likewise repeated the CNR accusation that the operation targeted Ntumi’s Mounkala site.
The government also addressed the earlier September 26 incident in Mindouli. While the CNR had said Ntumi’s convoy was blocked because his security vehicles were not allowed to continue, the government said Ntumi was traveling in a vehicle carrying visible weapons of war and refused to surrender them to security forces. Authorities said the DGSP ultimately allowed him to leave with the weapons in order to avoid a confrontation.
The government stressed that possession, transport and circulation of weapons are subject to the law and said the state would continue enforcing public order nationwide.
At the same time, it presented its actions as an effort to preserve peace in the Pool, saying security forces had deliberately exercised restraint to avoid escalation.
The two sides are therefore now offering fundamentally different accounts of what happened in Mounkala.
The CNR’s separate allegation that a drone exploded at the Mounkala site on October 2, killing a 12-year-old child and seriously injuring the child’s mother remains unresolved. The government statement shown here focuses on the October 7 confrontation and the earlier Mindouli incident and does not appear to address that allegation directly.
The government response also comes after its October 7 Cabinet meeting, whose published agenda focused on finance, hydrocarbons and appointments rather than the Pool incident.
For now, there are two conflicting narratives and no independent public account establishing exactly what occurred on the ground. What is clear is that the confrontation has reopened concerns about security and the durability of the peace process in the Pool Region.