The Lebanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs: We deny preventing the Lebanese ambassador in the Congo from following the case of the detainees, and confirm that we are following the case.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates issued a statement that said: "In recent days, several media reported on the arrest of several Lebanese citizens at one of the mineral extraction sites in the Kolwezi area and its surroundings in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, claiming that the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Diaspora, Josdorf Raji, prevented the case on Lebanon following the case in Lebanon.
She explained that this news "is completely false. Contrary to what was circulated, the minister issued instructions to Ambassador Haitham Ibrahim, the official in Congo, as soon as he learned about the matter, to follow and update himself on the details of the case."
She confirmed that "the embassy is closely following the case, and has initiated contacts with the Congolese Ministry of Foreign Affairs to officially verify the places of detention of the detainees, to receive the full nominal list of the detained Lebanese citizens, and to determine their legal status." According to preliminary information, these arrests are part of a campaign to regulate work at mining sites. It was also found that a large number of detainees had an illegal stay, having exceeded the period allowed according to the visa known locally as a "voluntary visa", which does not allow a stay of more than seven days.