Dr Alexandre Ibacka Dzabana - coordinator of the Plateforme congolaise des ONG des droits humains (Congolese platform of human rights NGOs) and president of the Association M22, a citizens' movement campaigning for respect and consideration of civil and political rights in the country - was arrested on Thursday 11 March in Brazzaville, ten days before the presidential election in the Republic of Congo. Dzabana was involved in organising a peaceful demonstration, scheduled for 6 March 2021 but banned by the authorities, to demand an inclusive national dialogue and the release of political prisoners. The government accuses him of wanting to destabilise the electoral process. Aged 77 and suffering from high blood pressure, his relatives in France sounded the alarm the same day to Agence France Presse (AFP), concerned about his state of health.

Charged with ‘undermining the internal security of the State’, he was provisionally released on 13 July 2021, more than 100 days later.