With roadside billboards, television announcements and social media posts, the National Fund for Reparations to Victims (FONAREV) is spearheading commemorations of the “genocost” (genocide through economic crime and greed), which take place every year on August 2 in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). “Never forget, never repeat, begin to heal” is the message being used to rally support around remembrance of over 10 million victims and fighting impunity for serious crimes committed since 1993. Originally spearheaded by the Congolese Action Youth Platform (CAYP), these commemorations have become an official national event, led by FONAREV since the 2023.
With its slogan “Never alone again”, this fund established in December 2022 calls for solidarity with victims and survivors of these crimes. It intends to carry out “three key actions”: “identify, support, and provide redress”.
Among the victims to be identified, supported and provided with redress, tens of thousands live in Kasai, a central region of the country. It was the scene of a bloody armed conflict known as “Kamuina Nsapu”, which pitted the militia of the same name against the government’s armed forces (FARDC) between 2016 and 2018. Since 2023, FONAREV has been operating in the region, where the five provinces (Kasai Central, Kasai, Kasai Oriental, Sankuru and Lomami) have been affected to varying degrees by this conflict that initially broke out in the Dibaya area (Kasai Central). At least 3,000 people lost their lives, whilst tens of thousands more have suffered as a result. In 2025, FONAREV recorded 185,037 victims across three provinces in the region: 81,789 in Kasai-Central; 63,112 in Kasai; and 40,136 in Kasai Oriental.
Victims’ dual expectations
For the past ten years, women, men and children have been striving to obtain justice and redress. “The victims are not only concerned with the criminal aspect – punishment and sentence on perpetrators who are identified and tried – but also with compensation,” says lawyer Alain Kateta, coordinator of the Promoting Transitional Justice (PROJUST) project in Kasai and Kasai-Central led by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). “I have seen several victims ask this question: ‘The court has handed down its decision, Mr Registrar, so when can I come to collect the money to which I am entitled under the ruling?’”.
Seated in his office in the centre of Kananga (Kasai Central), this seasoned lawyer tells us about the victims’ hopes and expectations. “Victims have expectations on two levels,” he tells Justice Info. “Have the facts been acknowledged, what has been said about those responsible? And after the punishment, when will I actually have my rights restored?”
In his view, FONAREV’s presence is beneficial for the victims, and funding that is “not limited in duration” would guarantee “sustainability” for the fund’s work with victims.
But behind FONAREV’s official mission and façade lies another reality: that of an institution which is losing the trust of victims, the authorities and members of civil society. It is criticised, amongst other things, for a lack of concrete action, opaque management and fraudulent practices, not to mention favouritism and nepotism.
Official remembrance without justice?
Among organisations advocating for the victims’ cause in Kasai is the Congolese Society for the Rule of Law (SCED). In a statement published on July 30, it calls for concrete action: “Commemorating the genocide in Central Kasai means asking what has been done for the woman abandoned by her husband because of a known rape, for the widow whose husband was killed, for the child who has been orphaned or recruited into the militia, for the woman who has been victim of sexual violence, for the family that has not been able to bury a loved one, and for the community whose homes, schools and health centres have been destroyed.”
SCED believes it is necessary to work towards “establishing the truth, prosecuting those responsible, providing redress for the harm caused, and reforming institutions”. The organisation stresses that “commemoration of the genocide would lose its significance if it were limited to speeches, ceremonies and solemn declarations without any concrete consequences for the victims”, and warns against “an official remembrance without justice”.
The organisation therefore questions two projects: the planned erection of a monument in memory of Chief Jean-Pierre Mpandi (Kamuina Nsapu) in the commune of Nganza, a stronghold of the uprising in Kananga; and construction of a memorial in the town of Tshimbulu, in the territory of Dibaya. In SCED’s view, these initiatives should not “precede establishment of the truth, nor be decided without consulting the victims”, at the risk of “enshrining an incomplete narrative”.
Allegations of nepotism and embezzlement
Nearly 200 kilometres from Kananga, we meet Sadam Kapanda, 36, on Dibumba Hill, by a thatched hut in front of the modern market in the town of Tshikapa. A survivor of the Kamuina Nsapu conflict, he fled the Kamonia territory for the town of Tshikapa in 2017 to escape machete attacks and death. He took refuge in the bush, where he saw the body of a child whose throat had been slit and witnessed killings. Journalist and member of the Provincial Committee for War Victims (Coprovigue), he worked with FONAREV as a civil society representative. In his view, between 2023 and 2025, FONAREV coordinators in the region were neither credible nor reliable but “a mafia that was obstructing the process of identifying victims”. “Those who had applied to be investigators were not selected. In the local areas, most of those working as investigators came from Kinshasa. They called on their relatives, rather than seeking out genuine investigators who know the local area and the language,” he told Justice Info.
“Most of the people on the ground were recommended and had neither applied nor taken part in the training. They called on their relatives, with whom they shared the money,” he continued. “The identification process was not a problem in itself. Those in charge of this operation sought to enrich themselves at the expense of genuine victims. There was even an on-site investigation carried out by FONAREV that led to disciplinary action.”
FONAREV has not issued any official statement regarding the suspension of two of its employees: Mhyrand Mulumba, the regional coordinator, and Julie Ochano, the focal point, both of whom were based in Kasai from 2023 to 2025.
Mulumba was replaced in his post in early 2026 by Gisèle Tshilengi. She is currently responsible for coordinating FONAREV in the Kasai region from the regional office in Kananga. As for Mulumba, he still works for the public body but is now based at head office in Kinshasa. No information is available regarding Julie Ochano. When contacted by Justice Info, neither Mulumba nor Ochano wished to respond.
Kapanda also claims to have personally witnessed proposals to embezzle funds and pay kickbacks: for example, he was offered the chance to pretend to be from another territory in order to claim and share transport costs. Following his revelations, the journalist claims to have received death threats, which prompted him to leave the city on the advice of the NGO Reporters without Borders.
Contradictory accounts
To follow-up on these allegations we tried to meet with the Kasai Central authorities in Kananga and the Kasai authorities in Tshikapa. We were unsuccessful. However, whilst travelling from Dibumba Hill to Kanzala Hill, on the outskirts of Kamalenga, we met Emery Ngoy, aged 28, who also worked with FONAREV and had a positive experience of it. He claims to have gone through the official channels to be recruited.
“I didn’t receive any kind of recommendation. I don’t know if there were any. I simply submitted my application and sat my test in the proper manner,” says the young man. Along with 24 other investigators, he was posted to the Luebo territory. There were almost as many in each of the five territories of Kasai Province: Tshikapa Kamonia, Luebo, Ilebo, Dekesse and Mweka. But despite spending seven months there, he says it was impossible to register all the victims. “Never, ever,” he says with a smile. “I identified around 3,000 victims myself. We managed to register about 80%.”
What strategies were used to improve the identification process? “The first method – going door-to-door – didn’t work. We moved on to setting up centres, places where victims could come to be identified. We positioned ourselves at the entrance and exit of the village, and in the middle,” replies Emery. And what about local knowledge? “I’d never been to Luebo before; I didn’t know the area, but thanks to local focal points – people from the area – the task wasn’t difficult,” he assures us. “We could tell the genuine victims from the imposters simply from the stories they told. Even the names of villages mentioned provided clues.”
MP Kambidi’s allegations
In early June 2026, FONAREV was the subject of a motion in the Central Kasai Provincial Assembly, tabled by Sosthène Kambidi. This national MP, a former journalist who has participated in several investigations into the Kamuina Nsapu crisis, thinks irregularities in the recruitment of investigators are clear. In his motion, Kambidi denounces a lack of transparency in the selection of shortlisted candidates, of whom only 17% are said to live in Kasai Central whilst 83% came from elsewhere on the basis of recommendations – amounting, in his view, to orchestrated fraud designed to favour candidates recommended from Kinshasa and other provinces at the expense of local young people.
According to this elected representative from Kazumba, whom we met at the Capitole (provincial assembly) of Kasai Central, this calls the reparations process into question, since identification is “an essential condition for any recognition and reparation” -- as emphasised by FONAREV itself during the launch of the victim identification process in Kasai Central in June 2025.
“We have received certain information as elected representatives. On the ground, investigators were exploiting the identification of victims and the mapping of affected sites for personal gain,” he alleges, backing up the charges levelled by Kapanda. “Instead of allowing those familiar with the situation in Kasai to go into the field, investigators were brought in who had never applied for the role, who came because there were arrangements with certain officials at FONAREV. We thought the work might be botched and that the victims might not be reached or compensated. The villages that had been burned, where women were raped – the FONAREV investigators never made it there. On the contrary, they went to villages where they had particular interests.”
For example, “a politician, for electoral reasons, might call a FONAREV investigator and ask them to go identify people in his village, even though it hadn’t been affected,” asserts the former journalist. “FONAREV investigators also contacted politicians. I myself was contacted. I was expected to provide them with transport, meals and incentives,” he says, adding that he turned down these requests.
At the time of our interview in early July, Kambidi – who claims to know people who were falsely identified as victims in Kananga – had received no response following the submission of his motion. “I urge FONAREV not to follow in FRIVAO’s footsteps,” he says ironically, referring to the other public body responsible for compensating victims, which is at the centre of several financial scandals and cases of embezzlement of public funds.
A call for collective reparations
Aldos Tshitoko, a Member of Parliament for the Dibaya constituency where the Kamuina Nsapu crisis began, also lambasts FONAREV’s investigative procedures. “If you go to FONAREV, if they are serious, they will tell you that the investigations were carried out poorly. For example, there are households that were visited by investigators who speak Lingala [Tshiluba is the main language in the region]. An interpreter might translate incorrectly,” says the MP, who believes the investigations should be redone. Tshitoko also questions the choice of local organisations partnering with the public body. He urges the fund’s administrators to be wary of “associations set up just to get money”, and to rely on genuine local organisations.
Finally, the MP says there should also be collective reparations, arguing that it would revive the region’s economy. All the more because FONAREV has substantial sources of funding, including 11 per cent of the country’s mining royalties. These generated $1.19 billion, according to the Ministry of Mines’ 2023 report, published in April 2024 and relayed by the Ebuteli research institute. FONAREV, which was included in the distribution of these royalties in October 2023, received $46.65 million for the final months of 2023. More recent figures have not been made available, but extrapolating over a year, this would represent an allocation of approximately $184 million.
“Kamuina Nsapa all started in Dibaya, which has seen massacres and mass graves. How can this territory get out of its fragile situation? According to a recent report, Kasai-Central is in the red financially,” says Tshitoko. “Economically, we are a very weak province. We’re struggling to build a bridge over the River Lulua, for example. There are funds available for that. Why not 100 kilometres of road between Kananga and Tshimbulu?”
In the mid-July issue of its “Journal des reparations” published on social media, FONAREV devotes an article to the rehabilitation of two schools in Mbuji-Mayi, in Eastern Kasai, as part of “collective reparations”. These are the primary schools in Bipemba and Disamba, which served as shelters for victims during the conflict. They are expected to be operational by October 2026. There is, however, no information available on the budget.
Pending legal cases
Finally, the slow pace of legal proceedings remains one of the obstacles to reparations. Of the 20 or so cases already tried, mainly by the military courts, no judgment is yet final and none can be enforced whilst avenues of appeal are still open. Some cases are at the appeal stage, such as that of murdered UN experts and that of militia leader Nsumbu. Other cases have not yet been scheduled for trial, despite investigations having been completed. This is the case with the Tshisuku village case, concerning an attack on a market in broad daylight in 2016, and the Nganza case, concerning attacks on several houses in that commune over at least three days in 2017.
At this stage in the legal proceedings, victims must still exercise “great patience” before any reparations can be made, says Kateta. “We have court decisions and judgments that have been handed down. The problem lies in their enforcement. I cannot recall a single court decision that has actually been enforced. There are appeals; after the appeal comes the cassation appeal. The victims are waiting,” the lawyer explains.
All our attempts to obtain a response from FONAREV have gone without a reply.
