Who should decide the proportion of funds to be allocated to individual and collective compensation under reparations mechanisms for victims of atrocities committed by Uganda in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)? In February 2022, the International Court of Justice ordered Uganda to pay $325 million to the DRC: $225 million for harm to people, $40 million for property damage, and $60 million for environmental damage and loss of natural resources in Ituri. On paper, it is the Special Fund for the Distribution of Compensation to Victims of Uganda’s Illegal Activities in the DRC (FRIVAO) that manages the funds. But the reality appears to be quite different.
After receiving each instalment of funds from Uganda, the Congolese government, through its justice ministry, deducts about 23% at source: 5% for management costs and 18% to compensate for natural resources destroyed or plundered during the Ugandan occupation, in particular the June 2000 war in Kisangani.
The remaining 77% is paid into FRIVAO. But the justice ministry, despite being represented on the FRIVAO board of directors, does not give the fund’s managers a free hand in allocating this money. For example, between August 2024 and July 2025, Justice Minister Constant Mutamba decided to increase the amount of individual compensation from a range of 250-1,000 dollars to 2,000 dollars per victim. “Over the phone, ministers order “give this [amount of compensation] to the Catholic Church, that amount to the Provincial Assembly. And FRIVAO’s managers comply, as if they were indebted to them for being appointed,” says Christian Kambi, president of the Nouvelle dynamique de la société civile (engaged civil society) association in Kisangani. He denounces the interference of successive justice ministers in the management of FRIVAO.
By increasing the amount of individual compensation, politicians sought to pull the wool over victims’ eyes so they would not notice millions of dollars embezzled under the guise of collective compensation, according to several sources close to the FRIVAO case.
Who got the money Kinshasa withheld?
“We are accused of misusing the victims’ funds, but I would like to know on what legal basis the justice ministers allow themselves to make these deductions,” comments a former close associate of Chançard Bolukola, the former FRIVAO coordinator who is currently in jail on trial for embezzlement. “And what exactly are these funds being used for in Kinshasa?” he continues, speaking on condition of anonymity.
When Rose Mutombo was justice minister, the DRC received $130 million from Uganda, of which approximately $103 million was paid to FRIVAO. Regarding Kinshasa’s deductions, notably to fund reparations for damage to natural resources, the justice ministry claims to have paid $9 million to the National Electricity Company (SNEL) for rehabilitation of electricity infrastructure destroyed during the war, and $1.7 million to the Office for Agricultural Access Roads (OVDA) – which did not exist during the war – to fund road maintenance. During the same period, FRIVAO also undertook a collective compensation scheme for the construction of a Six-Day War memorial, a project costing $710,595. This contract was agreed directly between the parties because of urgency to protect the site from flooding that threatened it, according to the contractors. In total, $11.4 million is said to have been allocated to collective reparations under Mutombo.
When Mutamba was justice minister, FRIVAO paid $15 million to Congo Energy as the first instalment of a $57 million project to electrify the city of Kisangani. An informed source told Justice Info that Congo Energy, a company owned by Belgian businessman Georges Forrest, was due to take over this project from SNEL, which had so far used only $2 million of the $9 million received. Consequently, in addition to the $7 million reportedly remaining in SNEL’s coffers, Mutamba instructed FRIVAO to contribute a further $50 million to enable completion of this electrification project, valued at $57 million by Congo Energy. In a press release dated 21 December 2024, Mutamba’s office noted that this funding from FRIVAO “is in addition to the $9 million that had already been made available for the same purpose” to SNEL.
In December 2024, FRIVAO also paid $4 million to the Congolese Institute for Nature Conservation (ICCN) to repair damage at the Kisangani Zoological and Botanical Gardens during the war. It also paid some $780,000 to the company Divo SARL for production of a film about the Six-Day War, and about $600,000 to a company called Topic Architecture for preliminary studies on all projects planned as part of the collective reparations scheme. In addition, $2.5 million was paid to the Catholic Church to repair its church and school facilities destroyed during the war, $1 million to the owner of Zambeke and $1.5 million to the owner of Wagenia, two hotel complexes also affected during the war. Finally, $100,000 went to the Kisangani University Clinic, and a further $200,000 to the Provincial Assembly, the provincial parliament of Tshopo -- which did not exist during the war.
A memorial that is the victims’ pride
The first known collective compensation is the Six-Day War Memorial, an imposing monument covering more than 2,000 square metres on the former Victims’ Square, erected to pay tribute to the victims. In its outer courtyard, there are works symbolising the graves of unknown soldiers and both known and unknown victims. There are also two symbolic sculptures of shells situated on either side of a representation of the River Tshopo. Inside, there is a mausoleum, a space for contemplation and graves.
An amendment to the original project also provides for the construction of four memorial stones, two mass graves, an exhibition hall, a reception hall for distinguished guests, as well as toilet facilities and storage areas. Jackson Muhindo, managing director of Accès Business Connect (ABC-Group) which is responsible for building the memorial, describes this architectural project as “a living testament to collective memory and hope for a better future”.
Originally scheduled to take six months, the work began in June 2024 and was 87% complete by August 2025 when it was halted, even though the company had received 95% of the funds, according to a report by the General Inspectorate of Finance. “Some finishing work remains to be completed [interior flooring in the mausoleum, ancillary installations, landscaping, signage],” notes this report, countersigned by FRIVAO and ABC Group after an assessment visit to the construction site. “We faced constraints due to changes in the FRIVAO teams, which forced us to halt the work,” explains Muhindo. “We could not continue whilst invoices remained unpaid by one partner, FRIVAO, whose accounts had been frozen. When a new team took over, they wanted to verify the validity of our contracts, and it took months before our invoices were paid.” His company is now waiting only for transfer of the remaining 5% of funds – $35,529 – to sign off on the project.
In the eyes of victims’ organisations, the memorial is the only collective compensation project whose implementation appears to have gone smoothly. On the margins of commemorative events from June 5 to 10, lawyer Blaise Monduka from the Ukumbusho collective (meaning “memory” in Swahili) organised a guided tour of the site for Kisangani schoolchildren and also showed us round. “It is a monument, a historic site for the Six-Day War. It preserves the history of those tragic events,” he says. “Many died here; they are buried here; their souls rest here. It is a matter of remembrance. It is the only structure we can now look upon with pride. The site was abandoned and history was in danger of being lost. We are delighted that it is being restored. People will pass by here and understand the history.”
A zoo restored for 4 million?
As for the ICCN, it estimated the material, environmental, physical and moral damages at 767,564 dollars, according to the Kinshasa-Gombe Court of Appeal which is hearing the FRIVAO embezzlement case. FRIVAO paid the ICCN $4 million in compensation, five times the amount of the damages assessed.
In Kisangani, if you ask the victims what the funds paid to the ICCN were used for, they reply: to build an enclosure and a standpipe. Justice Info visited this Zoological and Botanical Garden. Situated in Tshopo, which was severely affected during the war, this “garden” is in fact an 84-hectare secondary forest that the Boyomais (residents of Kisangani) call the “zoo”.
At the entrance, we pay the admission fee: 1,000 Congolese francs (0.4 dollars). Inside, there is a large two-storey building currently under construction. “It will serve as a guard post for eco-guards,” a member of staff tells us. About a hundred metres away, we see enclosures housing white-faced monkeys, eagles and a python in the middle of digesting, while people are talking to and admiring the monkeys. “This forest used to be home to wild species. All the endangered animals in the city found refuge in the zoo: monkeys, antelopes, monitor lizards, hippos,” recalls an employee who has been visiting Kisangani Zoo since childhood.
During the Six-Day War, this site – which separates the city centre from Kisangani’s industrial district – served as a forward logistics base for the Ugandan army, which was trying to reposition itself in the face of enemy fire. According to witnesses, the Rwandans bombarded it when they learned that the Ugandans had just set up their base there. The shelling killed three children of staff members, destroyed the animal enclosures and an electricity transformer supplying the zoo’s facilities, and caused the wild animals to flee.
Thanks to the $4 million received from the Congolese government as compensation for damage to natural resources, the ICCN is now attempting to rehabilitate the zoological and botanical garden. But what has been achieved since the funds were disbursed? When contacted by Justice Info, the zoo’s manager declined to respond, citing his right to remain silent whilst the case is the subject of legal proceedings in Kinshasa.
A suspicious display of activity
During our visit to the site, we saw an electrical transformer – the cost and specifications of which were not disclosed to us – that had been purchased and installed in a shed bearing the FRIVAO logo, as well as a standpipe stamped with the FRIVAO seal. “There had been no water or electricity since the Six-Day War. But with funding from FRIVAO, we’ve bought a transformer that provides us with medium-voltage power, and we now have a source of drinking water,” said one employee happily. The ICCN has also contracted four companies – two from Tshopo and two from Kinshasa – to carry out the refurbishment of other infrastructure. In particular, the former administrative building is having its offices and auditorium refurbished, with the addition of a cafeteria and aquariums.
During our visit, machines were roaring at full blast; workers were sanding the floor whilst others were painting the interior walls. 500 metres behind the administrative building, in the former staff camp, six small houses are being fully refurbished to serve as holiday villas for tourists, complete with a bedroom, living room, kitchen and bathroom. Behind these villas, the ICCN has built animal enclosures, with pens surrounding a future crocodile pond and fencing to house okapis and lions in nature.
We also went down to the beach to visit the restaurant currently under construction. The building is taking shape, but one employee is concerned about a lack of funds for walls to prevent water from the riverbed from flooding the restaurant.
A guardhouse, a standpipe, an electricity transformer, an administrative block, tourist villas, animal shelters, a restaurant: work on all these seems to have begun at the same time. But for how long and at what cost? On site, no manager was present and there are no signs providing information about the ongoing refurbishments, as is usually the case with other public works projects.
According to a current FRIVAO executive who wants to remain anonymous, the trial concerning alleged misappropriation of funds, currently underway in Kinshasa, played a major role in the resumption of the works. “They have had the 4 million since December 2024. But nobody knew exactly what the ICCN was doing as part of the zoo’s refurbishment. At first, they simply built an enclosure at the zoo entrance and refurbished a drinking fountain. It was only when the trial was announced that they launched work on all fronts in an attempt to conceal the alleged misappropriation,” he states. “On analysing the work currently being carried out at the zoo, I note that it consists solely of refurbishment, renovation and finishing work. There is no large-scale construction. I think that if an audit were carried out, they would struggle to justify even a million dollars. ”
In any case, the staff we met are counting heavily on these facilities becoming operational, so that the zoo can become self-financing and cover its running costs.
Missing or controversial funds
Some of the funds disbursed have simply vanished without a trace. This is the case with nearly $1.7 million paid by former minister Mutombo to the Agricultural Access Roads Office for rehabilitation of roads in Tshopo province. In Kisangani, FRIVAO and the victims simply cannot locate a single rehabilitated road.
Other funds are highly controversial. This is the case with the approximately $15 million originally intended for the Congo Energy company. “This $15 million was the first instalment intended for Congo Energy to rehabilitate the Kisangani hydroelectric power station and supply the city with electricity,” a former colleague of Bolukola confirmed to us on condition of anonymity. “We had already entered into a contract with the company, but everything was stopped. The funds are frozen in a bank account,”
The Congolese judicial authorities suspected an attempt at embezzlement, particularly when former minister Mutamba decided to award a contract worth $57 million to another company to supply electricity to Kisangani, even though his predecessor Mutombo had already allocated $9 million to SNEL for the same purpose, explains Arthur Pinzi, the current deputy coordinator of FRIVAO. Of the $9 million, SNEL claims to have used only $2 million. However, only $141,000 can be traced as having been used to purchase cables and other equipment, and the Tshopo hydroelectric power station remains in a state of serious disrepair. With the funds frozen, nothing has been done, and Kisangani continues to suffer power cuts.
The city’s university clinic, which also received funding from FRIVAO, opted to purchase a generator to make up for its power shortfalls, but the generator broke down almost immediately, leaving the clinic in dire straits. As for Makiso General Hospital, it too is at the mercy of the power cuts. In the hospital’s operating theatre, we meet Charly Yenga, aged 62, who has been a nurse at the hospital for 30 years. She was working there during the Six-Day War. “We spent at least eight days in the operating theatre, treating the wounded who were brought in under a hail of bullets. We were receiving more than 20 wounded people every day, including the iconic FRIVAO victim who had both legs amputated. It was me and Dr Soki who amputated his legs. We saved many people that way, but unfortunately we gained nothing from it,” she laments. “Even the electricity we hear so much about – there’s none. The hospital needs electricity to run properly. And here in Mangobo, at home, we rarely have any power. We often sleep in the dark, whilst people are embezzling the compensation meant for electricity. ”
Misappropriation to curry favour with voters?
For Monduka, of the Ukumbusho collective, it is the race for votes and the lure of easy enrichment that led the ambitious minister Mutamba to this disastrous management of FRIVAO. He cites the minister’s desire to boost his popularity in Tshopo, a hotly contested constituency where he competes with other powerbrokers from the Tshisekedi regime. “With the millions from FRIVAO, Mutamba thought he could find ways to solve the problems in Kisangani or Tshopo to win the people’s favour,” he says.
“He thought about electricity, which is a major problem in Kisangani; he thought about building a new prison because the old one dates back to the colonial era; he thought about the Catholic Church; he thought about building a hospital; he thought about the zoo; he even tried to take money from the victims to build the Lumumba Stadium in Kisangani. A delegation even came to assess the condition of the stadium before the work began. But then the Congolese government rejected the proposal, believing that the stadium could be built using funds from another source,” continues Monduka.
For the lawyer, the victims’ lack of vigilance on collective compensation has also allowed politicians to divert funds from their intended purpose. “Through these collective compensation schemes, ministers and officials can easily line their pockets with millions in kickbacks. They began by pulling the wool over the victims’ eyes by increasing their individual compensation payments to $2,000. The victims rejoiced and let their guard down on the collective compensation scheme, through which millions of dollars are, in fact, channelled,” he says.
“Before, the victims were content with just their $2,000, and the rest didn’t concern them. It was only when individual compensation payments were suspended that they began to look into collective compensation,” adds Kambi.
No oversight of the funds
At Bolukola’s trial in the Congolese capital, the presiding judge stressed that most of the funds had been allocated without the approval of FRIVAO’s board of directors. The decree establishing FRIVAO also provided for the setting up of an oversight committee, Kambi points out. “But it never functioned, even though it was supposed to produce counter-assessment reports. The absence of this committee led them to manage the victims’ funds as if they were free agents,” he laments.
“We had no procedure for monitoring these collective compensation payments. We had no mandate,” says Jean Kalegamire Bienda, vice-president of the Solidarity Fund for Victims of the Six-Day War (FSV-G) association. “Admittedly, we were called to attend ceremonies where cheques were handed to the recipients of collective compensation, but we had no idea what happened afterwards. I was at the university clinic when Bolukola handed over the cheque. But I don’t know how or when the recipients collected the funds from the bank. We were not involved in monitoring implementation of the work.”
Bienda also condemns clientelism and corruption in certain victim compensation schemes, citing the case of two business owners -- owners of the Zambeke and Wagenia hotels, which had been bombed. They each received over a million dollars in compensation without any assessment of the damage. “We do not know how or when they received the money. For the money to be released from FRIVAO’s coffers, one had to be on good terms with the members of the organisation [FRIVAO].”
To date, no legal action has been taken against former minister Motumbo or members of his team. Bolukola has been on trial since April 21 at the Kinshasa-Gombe Court of Appeal. He was joined on July 13 by Mutamba for a new trial which opened against the former minister. He had already been sentenced to three years’ imprisonment for embezzlement of public funds. The prosecution accuses the two men of embezzling more than 20 million dollars intended for compensation to the victims of Kisangani. But as soon as the proceedings began, the case was adjourned until July 27.
