The Congo Coup: Americans, Gunfire and a Wild Bid to Seize Power
Christian Malanga was a Congolese political activist, businessman and former military officer who moved to the United States in 1998 and settled in Salt Lake City, Utah. He later returned to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), served in its military and became politically active. After an unsuccessful 2011 parliamentary campaign, he returned to the United States and founded the United Congolese Party. In 2017, he established the “New Zaire Government in Exile” and proclaimed himself its president. Malanga portrayed Congo’s leadership as corrupt and mismanaged and promoted himself as an alternative leader.
On May 19, 2024, Malanga attempted to turn that political movement into an armed takeover in Kinshasa, the capital of the DRC, formerly known as Zaire. Around 2 a.m., Malanga and his followers reportedly attacked a police station and took weapons. Around 3:30 a.m., Malanga allegedly carjacked a gray Range Rover and shot its owner. The group then moved toward additional government targets.
Around 4:30 a.m., Malanga’s forces attacked the residence of Vital Kamerhe, a senior government official and political ally of President Félix Tshisekedi. The attackers exchanged gunfire with Kamerhe’s security guards, killing one attacker and two police officers. About 5 a.m., the group moved to the Palais de la Nation, the presidential complex, using vehicles that included a police jeep taken during the earlier attack.
The attackers entered the Palais de la Nation, the official presidential complex, and displayed flags associated with the former Zaire. Tshisekedi was not at the complex. Malanga presented the assault as the overthrow of the government and the beginning of his proposed “New Zaire,” with himself as president.
Malanga and his followers filmed and livestreamed the operation from inside the presidential complex. The footage showed Malanga surrounded by armed followers as he threatened Tshisekedi and announced the group’s intentions. The livestream documented their position while Congolese security forces moved against them.
The operation collapsed within hours. Security forces stormed the complex, killing Malanga and several other attackers. The remaining attackers scattered and attempted to escape. Marcel Malanga, Tyler Thompson Jr. and Benjamin Reuben Zalman-Polun were captured by Congolese forces after fleeing toward the Congo River. By roughly 9 to 10 a.m., the coup attempt had been crushed.
The failed operation brought three Americans into the center of the investigation: Marcel Malanga, Christian’s 21-year-old son; Tyler Thompson Jr., Marcel’s 21-year-old friend and former high school football teammate from Utah; and Benjamin Reuben Zalman-Polun, a 36-year-old American businessman with ties to Christian Malanga.
The three were among more than 50 defendants prosecuted in Congo. A military court convicted 37 defendants in September 2024, including the three Americans, and sentenced all 37 to death. In April 2025, President Félix Tshisekedi commuted the three Americans’ death sentences to life imprisonment. On April 8, they were released into U.S. custody and returned to the United States, where they were arrested on separate federal charges.
The U.S. Department of Justice subsequently charged the three Americans and a fourth man, Joseph Peter Moesser, alleging a broader conspiracy involving firearms, explosives, drones and plans to attack government facilities and kill or kidnap people in the DRC. The case remains active in the U.S. District Court for the District of Utah, with extensive discovery and other pretrial proceedings continuing through 2026. No trial date has been publicly confirmed. The federal allegations remain unproven, and the defendants are presumed innocent unless convicted.
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