Assasination of Marien Ngouabi: Home grown or commandeered from abroad

The funniest one was in 2009, while I was interviewing General Emmanuel Ngouelondele, who was a close friend and close collaborator of Commandant Marien Ngouabi and who is still wearing a wrist watch offered to him by Marien Ngouabi, I asked him bluntly during our interview: “who killed Marien Ngouabi?” He replied: “Go and ask your friend Denis Sassou Nguesso”.  General Emmanuel Ngouelondele Mongo worked with Marien Ngouabi from 1969 to 1975 and  in 2013 he published two volumes of his memoires that in total was 657 page in  titled in French as : Au service du Congo, mon Temoignage or in English: At the service of Congo, my testimony. But what stoke me with it was that, he was unable to give any clarity on the death Marien Ngouabi. He was evasive and there was nothing new in his book that would have helped Congolese and also stop the rumors, speculations and accusations and counter accusation prevailing in Congo. Either General Emmanuel Ngouelondele Mongo knows nothing about the assassination of his late former boss or he is just a coward and not an Army General as he likes to claim.

To his discharge, he is not the only one, for even General Joachim Yhombi Opango who was a victim twice of Denis Sassou Nguesso has been unable or not courageous enough to enlighten the public on the assassination of the one who not only made them to become what they all are today, but who above all, shifted the balance of power from the south to the undereducated and backward northern Congolese courtesy the 1968 Coup d’état. My opinion is that, either they were all accomplices shortchanged by Denis Sassou Nguesso or they are simply cowards. Perhaps the  attitude of General Emmanuel Ngouelondele Mongo is the reason why, there is also a rumor in Brazzaville, which has it that, one year before the assassination of Marien Ngouabi, Emmanuel Ngouelondele was sent to Paris by Denis Sassou Nguesso to explain or ask for France’s support in their planned  coup d’état against Marien Ngouabi. For Marien Ngouabi had become too nationalistic in the eyes of the French, hence they wanted him eliminated. Those claiming that, Emmanuel Ngouelondele knows something about the assassination of Marien Ngouabi also points out that, today; the Lord Mayor of the Brazzaville Greater City Council is Hughes Ngouelondele MP.

Hughes Ngouelondele is the son in law to the President and also the first son of the retired General Emmanuel Ngouelondele. Furthermore, the daughter of General Emmanuel Ngouelondele is married to Edgard Nguesso, the nephew of President Denis Sassou Nguesso. To those who want to accuse Denis Sassou Nguesso in the death of Marien Ngouabi, they also claim that, Emmanuel Ngouelondele has been compensated for his treachery.  The intermarriages between the Ngouelondele and the Nguesso, it is claimed in some circle in Brazzaville, is not by chanced, but a means to compensate Emmanuel Ngouelondele and the intermarriages  also  severs as collateral that the secret on the assassination of Marien Ngouabi will forever remain a secret. The assassination of Marien Ngouabi may have been carried out by Congolese, but it seems it was commandeered from abroad.