Ancestry of Jewish refugee's son at heart of major political crisis in Congo

[Mosby]

JTA — The ancestry of the son of a Jewish refugee in the Democratic Republic of Congo has emerged as a flashpoint for a political crisis that is threatening the integrity of the massive African country.

The crisis came to a head last week when lawmakers loyal to President Felix Tshiseked introduced a bill that would restrict the presidency to those with two Congolese parents.

It’s a thinly veiled move against Moise Katumbi, one of Congo’s most popular politicians, whose father was a Greek Sephardic Jew who fled the Holocaust in Europe and settled in Congo, where he married a local woman, Katumbi’s mother.

Katumbi’s father, Nissim Soriano, fled Rhodes and settled in Congo’s Katanga province, where he married the granddaughter of the local King Msiri. In his later years, Soriano emigrated to Israel, where he lived until his death. He is buried in Netanya.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/ancestry-of-jewish-refugees-son-at-heart-of-major-political-crisis-in-congo/

[JustAnotherGen]

1. Stinks to high heaven

It's obviously not nationality - it's the very fact that his father was an immigrant, and Jewish - that they built this unjust 'law'.

The Katanga region would do well to have him as the President. DRC should really stop and consider what they are opening up. Possibly another civil war/unrest by not allowing the people to self-determine representation.

In public addresses, the African politician refers frequently to his Jewish roots, even calling himself “the Moses of Katanga, back to lead his people.” (Moise is the French spelling for the name Moses.) Katumbi was the governor of Katanga, one of the country’s 21 provinces and by far its richest in minerals.

Complicating matters further is the fact that Katumbi hails from the province of Katanga, a mineral-rich area in the country’s east with a history of secessionism that he served as governor. The attempt to block Katumbi’s path to the presidency is rekindling secessionist tendencies there.