After nine years on Washington’s financial blacklist, retired four-star General François Olenga is free again — and so is Safari Club. The US Treasury Department has formally notified the general’s legal team that the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has removed both him and his business from the American sanctions list. The question now is whether this reversal is a simple legal victory for one man, or a signal that the DRC should start building its own sanctions architecture.
What the OFAC decision actually changes for Olenga
The practical effect is immediate. General Olenga can once again deal with American citizens and institutions, and Safari Club, his high-end leisure complex in N’sele, is no longer off-limits to US entities or individuals.
His lawyer, Aimé Kilolo Musamba, confirmed the development in a statement dated 23 September, describing it as the culmination of more than nine years of work, lobbying and repeated trips to Washington to argue the case before US institutions.
“I have always maintained that the evidence in the file did not justify keeping these sanctions against my client,” he wrote. “Today, this long procedure has reached its conclusion.”
A legal battle fought across two continents
For Me Kilolo, the outcome carries a broader message: an African lawyer can mount a defence at the highest international level, navigate the complex legal machinery of major powers and make a client’s arguments heard. He described the years of advocacy as proof that “the law has no border when the defence is conducted with competence, consistency and determination.”
The case began in June 2017, when the general — then head of former President Joseph Kabila’s close security detail — was placed on Washington’s blacklist. His assets were frozen and he was barred from travelling to the United States.
The American administration accused him of obstructing the democratic process during the crisis that followed Kabila’s decision to remain in power after his mandate expired in December 2016. According to the Treasury at the time, the Republican Guard under his command had “harassed political opponents”, carried out arbitrary arrests and executions, and hindered the work of UN observers.
Why the DRC should stop outsourcing its sanctions
Beyond the personal relief for Olenga, his lawyer is using the outcome to press a wider argument: the DRC cannot keep waiting for individual and financial sanctions to arrive almost exclusively from the United States or the European Union. Faced with international crimes committed on its own soil, particularly in the east of the country, Kinshasa should equip itself with a national legal framework allowing its own institutions to adopt targeted sanctions — while respecting the rule of law and the rights of the defence.
“Sovereignty is also a state’s capacity to implement the legal instruments needed to defend its population and its fundamental interests,” he argued from Brussels. “But international justice must not be a responsibility that Congo abandons to others.”
That is the real stake behind this delisting. The sanctions are gone, but the debate they leave behind — about who judges whom, and who protects Congolese citizens — is only getting started.
