A former DR Congo minister has been arrested in neighbouring Republic of Congo at the request of authorities in Kinshasa who have accused him of embezzlement, a police source said Wednesday. Willy Bakonga, a former education minister in the DR Congo, was held on arrival in Brazzaville on a flight from Paris late Tuesday after Kinshasa requested his extradition, the source said. DRC prosecutors have been seeking Bakonga since Friday in connection with an embezzlement case. Bakonga had held the post of education minister since August 2019 under President Felix Tshisekedi. Late last month, two public education officials in the DRC were sentenced to 20 years in prison for embezzlement. Free primary education is a flagship policy of Tshisekedi, who has been in power since January 2019. But the World Bank said in February it was suspending a first tranche of $100 million in a programme to fund free schools in DR Congo over "fraud and corruption" in the education sector. Bakonga's arrest comes a week after a visit by Tshisekedi to Brazzaville, where he attended the swearing-in of long-time Congo leader Denis Sassou Nguesso. Kinshasa has previously sought in vain the extradition of General Munene, an official under Joseph Mobutu, who was in power in the then Zaire from 1965 to 1997. lmm-bmb-mbb/wdb/gd