Frédéric Kibassa Maliba

Frédéric Kibassa Maliba (28 December 1939 – 5 April 2003) was a politician in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Kibassa held the positions of Deputy Minister of Mines and then Minister of Mines in the Laurent-Désiré Kabila government. He was accused of misappropriating funds in June 2000, while he was Minister of Mines. In October 1991 Kibassa Maliba was serving as chairman of the Union Sacrée de l'Opposition Radicale (USOR), which was formed in 1991 as a coalition of opposition groups that included the UDPS. In January 1993 troops from the elite Division spéciale présidentielle made a rocket attack on Kibassa's family home. His 28-year-old son, Berthos, was killed and other family members badly injured. Tshisekedi was the prime minister of the country at the time. In June 1994 soldiers fired on people gathered in front of Kibassa Maliba's home. As of 1994 he was still president of USOR and leader of the main opposition UDPS.

Kabila regime

At the end of the First Congo War, in May 1997 Mobutu fled into exile and Laurent-Désiré Kabila took power. Kabila appointed Kibassa Deputy Minister of Mines in November 1997. At the time, Kibassa was leader of the UDPS/Kibassa. This was, according to people close to Tshisekedi, one of the parties recognized by the Kabila government, reportedly in order to reduce the stature of the UDPS/Tshisekedi faction. A spokesman for Tshisekedi's faction falsely accused Kibassa's party of being "a branch of [Kabila's] AFDL/CPP State Party". During his Canada mission, Kibassa Maliba was also scheduled to meet with Canadian NGOs at Montreal offices of the Canadian engineering firm SNC Lavalin. However, this meeting was reportedly canceled by Canada's Foreign Affairs department following protests made by dozens of representatives from a banned Congolese opposition party, the UDPS/Tshisekedi (Union for Democracy and Social Progress/Tshisekedi).

Kibassa died from a heart attack in Brussels on 5 April 2003, following a long illness.