[3] One of the targeted politicians was an ally of Tshisekedi, Economy Minister Vital Kamerhe,[4] who was running for the presidency of the National Assembly.

[5][6] Clashes between men wearing camouflage fatigues holding assault rifles and the security forces[1] were reported near the Palais du Peuple,[7][8] which the assailants managed to enter.

[9] Twenty others[10] attacked Vital Kamerhe's residence at Tshatshi Boulevard[5] in the Gombe neighborhood,[11] but were foiled by his security guards.

[9] Malanga appeared on a livestreamed video on his Facebook page depicting him at the entrance of the Palais de la Nation flanked by men wearing camouflage with the Zairean flag.

[15] Two police officers[5] who were guarding Kamerhe's residence were killed during the coup attempt, as were four attackers, including their leader Christian Malanga.

[18] Malanga moved from the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the United States in the late 1990s and worked as a car salesman in Utah before returning to the DRC to serve as an army officer.

[20] Army spokesman Brigadier General Sylvain Ekenge said at a media briefing later that Malanga was killed after resisting arrest by the Republican Guard during the fighting at the Palais de la Nation.

[26] Also arrested was Tyler Thompson (originally misidentified as Taylor Thomson), a 21-year-old[27] friend and former high school football teammate of Marcel Malenga.

Other colleagues of Marcel said that he had made various propositions to entice them to go with him to the DRC, describing the opportunity at various points as a family vacation or as a service project to build wells in impoverished communities.

[9] The US embassy issued warnings of caution following the clashes,[1] with ambassador Lucy Tamlyn saying that they were cooperating with Congolese authorities in the investigation and pledging to "hold accountable any American citizen involved".

[11] On 3 June, the embassy said that Congolese authorities had not given them details or allowed access to the American nationals imprisoned for their involvement in the coup attempt.

[11] The head of the African Union Commission, Moussa Faki, strongly condemned the attempted coup and welcomed its suppression by the Congolese security forces.

Human Rights Watch criticised the inclusion of Jean-Jacques Wondo, a Belgian-Congolese researcher on political and security issues, as a defendant in the case, saying that the grounds for the charges against him appeared to be a photograph of him and Christian Malanga that was taken in 2016.