President Felix Tshisekedi's construction company, led by one of his family members, built this bridge for 2.2 million dollars. On the day of its inauguration, it collapsed.
Executive summary
Claims circulating on social media say a $2.2 million bridge in the Democratic Republic of Congo was built by a company linked to President Félix Tshisekedi’s family and collapsed on the day of its inauguration; those specific allegations appear in multiple online outlets but have not been independently verified by major international news organizations in the supplied material [1] [2]. Reporting in the supplied sources shows several recent, unrelated bridge collapses in November 2025 — including a deadly makeshift mine bridge in Lualaba and a partially collapsed bridge in China — that have fueled online confusion and viral posts [3] [4].
1. Viral claim: what supporters of the story are saying
Social posts and several web outlets repeat a simple narrative: a $2.2 million bridge allegedly built by a company tied to a relative of President Félix Tshisekedi collapsed during its inauguration, producing dramatic video and accusations of nepotism and corruption [1] [2] [5]. The posts emphasize the price tag, the family link to the president, and the timing of the failure — a combination designed to generate outrage and rapid sharing [1] [2].
2. What the reputable reporting in the supplied set actually documents
Among the supplied sources, the strongest independent coverage concerns two different, well-documented incidents: a deadly collapse of a makeshift bridge at an artisanal copper/cobalt mine in Lualaba that killed dozens in November 2025, and a partial collapse of a newly opened bridge in China attributed to geological instability and landslides [3] [4]. The mine incident involved informal miners and a makeshift structure, with reported casualties and calls for investigations into law-enforcement actions — not the inauguration-of-an-official-state bridge by a presidential relative [3] [6].
3. Gaps and unverified elements in the Tshisekedi-linked bridge story
Available sources in this packet note the social-media claims and repeat the allegation of a $2.2 million bridge tied to a presidential relative, but they also acknowledge a lack of independent verification by major news organizations and warn that the connection has not been confirmed [1]. The supplied outlets that publish the dramatic version are partisan or less-established sites; none in this collection provides documentation such as an official contract, tender records, local government statements directly linking the project to the president’s family, or on-the-record forensic or engineering findings about the collapse [1] [2] [5].
4. Why multiple, separate bridge incidents can fuel misinformation
November 2025 saw at least two high-profile bridge failures documented by established outlets: the Lualaba mine collapse that killed dozens, and a partial collapse in Sichuan, China, that investigators tied to landslides or geological instability [3] [4]. Viral posts can conflate footage or reports from different events and repurpose them into a politically charged story — for example, images or video of one collapse being framed as evidence for a separate, unverified incident [1] [2].
5. Competing narratives and implicit agendas to watch
The social posts repeating the Tshisekedi-family claim come from politically active accounts and outlets that frequently use sensational framing; their motive can be both to delegitimize political figures and to drive engagement [1]. Conversely, mainstream outlets are cautious, emphasizing verified facts and existing investigations for different incidents [3] [4]. Readers should therefore treat uncorroborated social-media claims as politically useful but not definitive in the absence of contract documents, government statements, or independent forensic reports [1] [2].
6. What reporting would settle the question — and what’s missing here
To confirm or refute the viral claim, reporting needs: procurement/tender records showing the award and cost; corporate ownership documents tying the builder to a named family member; an official statement about the collapse (date, cause, injuries); and independent engineering or forensic analysis. The supplied sources do not produce those items for the Tshisekedi-linked bridge claim; they instead document the allegation’s circulation and note its lack of independent verification [1] [2].
7. Bottom line and recommended caution for readers
The claim that President Félix Tshisekedi’s family-run company built a $2.2 million bridge that collapsed on its inauguration day is widely circulated online and repeated by some outlets in this set, but the supplied material makes clear that independent verification is missing and that other, unrelated bridge disasters have been conflated into the narrative [1] [2] [3]. Treat the allegation as unconfirmed until authoritative evidence — procurement records, government or judicial statements, or forensic engineering reports — is published [1].