Reporting on mining activities in the DRC: La Guardia journalists targeted by pressure and legal threats

"We were offered $5,000 to take down our article," Godlive Nyemba, director of the online news outlet La Guardia, told RSF. Since 28 September, the newsroom has been subjected to pressure from Luilu Ressources SAS, a company specialising in copper and cobalt mining in Lualaba province, in the south-east of the DRC. The issue stems from an article published on 19 September, which reported concerns raised by two local associations about the alleged health and environmental consequences of the company's activities in the village of Noa. The newsroom says it contacted the company before publication but received no response.

"If you do not take down the article, you will face the consequences"

The article's author, Simplice Bambe, says that an intermediary, who introduced himself over the phone as a journalist, first offered to meet him to discuss the publication before offering him $2,500 in exchange for taking down the article. After Simplice Bambe refused, the intermediary visited the outlet's offices in Lubumbashi on 6 October, accompanied by a lawyer and the company's head of legal affairs. The latter threatened the newsroom, saying that if they did not remove the article, the team would "face the consequences". La Guardia repeatedly offered to publish a right of reply, but the company representative rejected this possibility.

The following day, a bailiff delivered a formal notice from the company to the outlet, reiterating the same demand and threatening legal action. Luilu Ressources SAS accuses La Guardia of failing to verify the allegations it reported and disputes the authenticity of the photograph accompanying the article, claiming that it was taken in Malawi. Simplice Bambe maintains that it was taken in Kolwezi on 26 August 2026. The intermediary subsequently made another offer, this time of $5,000, by phone to Denise Maheho, the outlet's editor-in-chief, who also turned it down. On 9 October, the company's head of legal affairs contacted Godlive Nyemba, the news outlet's director, on WhatsApp and repeated the threats. The head of a civil society organisation behind a statement signed by 50 organisations also told RSF that the same person had contacted him to ask him to withdraw his support for the outlet.

In a right of reply eventually published on 11 October, Luilu Ressources SAS rejected what they called "false claims"; asserted that "no illness resulting from their activities has been detected to date"; stated they were continuing their investigations and that they reserved the right to take legal action.

According to the journalists, the threats have since stopped, but the newsroom remains on its guard. "When someone tells you that you will 'face the consequences', in our environment, that does not always mean going through normal legal proceedings," Godlive Nyemba said with concern.

When contacted by RSF, the head of the company's legal affairs said: "I will not comment on this matter."