In the DRC, a third journalist detained in a shipping container, then forced to produce propaganda for the M23

Espoir Mbata's evasive gaze, scripted question and forced smile say it all. Although the clip is only four minutes long, the discomfort of the director of Top Buzi FM is palpable. The video broadcast on X by Lawrence Kanyuka, spokesperson for the March 23 Movement (M23) - a Rwanda-backed armed group that controls part of eastern DRC - and filmed under duress as revealed by this investigation, marks the end of a nightmarish week for the journalist based in Minova, around 45 kilometres from Goma, the eastern city seized by the M23 in January 2025.

On 29 March, five days before the video was broadcast, Espoir Mbata had been arrested at his radio station by three individuals claiming to belong to the M23. Transferred the following day to Goma, the capital of North Kivu province, he remained untraceable until his - very unexpected - reappearance in this video.

Locked up in a "blue container"

Less than a week after RSF revealed that at least two journalists had been detained in shipping containers located in the courtyard of Goma's Provincial Assembly in 2025, Espoir Mbata was also held in the same conditions for four days.

The community radio director spoke to RSF about his ordeal. Questioned by M23 members about his social media posts upon arrival at the Provincial Assembly, he was then placed in detention in a "blue container" located "near the entrance gate," one of eleven containers on site according to his count. Inside, the journalist was forced to endure the same hellish treatment as his fellow detainees. The heat was stifling during the day, meals consisting of corn and beans were far from sufficient, and the "twenty or so detainees" sharing this makeshift, windowless cell were forced to relieve themselves inside the container, which was devoid of both light and ventilation. These conditions match entirely with first-hand accounts previously obtained by RSF earlier in the year. Espoir Mbata was not beaten. "My case was already known [to the public], and my disappearance had been mediatised," he explained.

Release in exchange for a non-consensual video

Did the investigation into these containers, followed by RSF's statement expressing concern over the journalist's abduction, hasten his release? Possibly. But after dismissing RSF's revelations about this practice as "completely unfounded," the M23 attempted to disguise this recent detention of a journalist with a grotesque and unconvincing charade.

On 3 April, Espoir Mbata left the Provincial Assembly. He was taken to the offices of the armed group's spokesperson, Lawrence Kanyuka. Noting that the journalist was unclean after several days in captivity, Kanyuka invited him to take a shower and took him to a shop to buy clean clothes. Soon after, the journalist was filmed interviewing Lawrence Kanyuka in a studio. Aside from discussing local news, the video's main purpose seems to be to refute the journalist's arrest and justify his presence in Goma.

But the radio director's unease is clear, and the scene is unconvincingly staged. The editing, clearly done in haste, includes cutaway shots to the journalist whose face betrays his discomfort. "This programme was not consensual; I did not feel at ease," Espoir Mbata confirmed to RSF. The video was published a few hours later.

"He [Lawrence Kanyuka] then asked me whether I had family in Goma," Espoir Mbata added. Kanyuka escorted the journalist to his family himself, bringing an end to the nearly six-day-long ordeal.

Despite repeated requests, neither M23 spokesperson Lawrence Kanyuka nor his deputy, Oscar Balinda, responded to RSF's attempts at contact.

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