Zaire: At least two people were arrested Sunday in the northern province of Zaire for harboring 12 illegal immigrants from the Democratic Republic of Congo, local national police spokesman Lieutenant Lus Bernardo said Monday. The two were charged with aiding and abetting illegal immigration, a crime punishable under Angola’s penal code.
According to Angola Press News Agency, the two people, aged 32 and 48, were sheltering the DRC nationals, three of whom were teenagers. The spokesman added that the Congolese nationals intended to reach the country’s capital, Luanda, with the help of the detainees.
The police spokesman explained that the plan involved sums of money to be paid to the facilitators. At the time of the arrest, the two Angolans attempted to bribe the police forces with the sum of 138,000 kwanzas and 99,000 Congolese francs to be released.
The province of Zaire, which shares an extensive land and river border with the Democratic Republic of the Congo, has seen repeated cases of aiding and abetting illegal immigration by its nationals.