DR Congo football: a system of child sexual abuse is still in place

“It’s a country that is truly fanatical about football, so all the young people who come into this environment aspire to become professionals. That’s how some malicious officials take advantage, selling them the dream that in Europe it works the same way, that players have to endure sexual touching or simply sleep with officials or coaches to earn their place.”

In a fascinating interview on Histoires de Foot Podcast, Mulumbu was first asked about the child sexual abuse scandal revealed in 2022 by Sport News Africa, which notably led to FIFA banning Jonathan Bukabakwa from all football activity for twenty years for abusing minors.

Read the investigation: Football: decades of blackmail, sexual abuse of minors and child sex crimes in DR Congo

“Some young players would come to me asking whether it happened like this in Europe too”

Setting the scene, the former captain then explains how he learnt of these practices on signing for FC Saint-Eloi Lupopo. “I’d heard about it but first of all, I wanted to have it verified. When, in my own team, a player whose name unfortunately I won’t give because there were investigations and it’s quite delicate for him because he’s still a footballer, came to tell me that he had been groped, that some coaches and officials had demanded sex in order to play.

That’s when I made the decision to testify. We had a meeting with FIFPro. I’d also brought evidence and messages that I had been able to pass on, but it’s a serious reality, a reality that exists in Congo and in other African countries, unfortunately. I think it has been going on for a long time and the phenomenon is growing more and more. The more we have Cristiano Ronaldos or Messis, the more people want to become new Mbappés too, so inevitably it breeds covetousness, and malicious people behind the scenes sell this dream that you absolutely have to go through this, through these practices, to succeed.

What outraged me most was that some young players came to me to ask whether it happened like this in Europe too. I told them: ‘That’s unthinkable…’ I was quite shocked to see that evidence could be obtained so easily, messages from coaches to players, photos, videos, it was very easy to investigate […] I don’t think FIFA does that work because it is still distant. When you’re far from a conflict, you often worry a bit less about it.”

Botched investigations and predators at large

In a long statement, FC Saint-Eloi Lupopo reacted with outrage at the comments, calling them “unfounded and false”. To clear itself, the club says “one of our former coaches was the subject of a FECOFA investigation, suspended, then cleared for lack of proven evidence”.

Read also : DR Congo-Sexual abuse of minors: FIFA to suspend FECOFA

That is a reference to the preventive suspension of six coaches, including Bertin Maku, who had in fact fled the country for a time when the revelations emerged. However, he was never “cleared”, since the federation in reality never carried out a thorough investigation, and neither did the Congolese justice system.

This laxity therefore allows several coaches to carry on with their practices without any problem despite the cases, such as Guy-Roger Limolo, who found a job at FC Renaissance du Congo, or Donga Epapa Cedric, alias ‘Moyindo’, who asked a 16-year-old on Facebook to show him his penis to find out whether it “is diamond or not […] It’s big, is that why you think it’s diamond?”

After a few exchanges, Moyindo reminded the teenager that he must receive “his dose” and that he must not get a big head because his penis was supposedly “diamond”. No action was taken by FECOFA or by FIFA, which suspended only one coach, for twenty years: Jonathan Bukabakwa, known as ‘Messi’, who had already been jailed in Makala prison in the past for paedophilia.

“Sacrifices […] Either with blood or with their bodies”

Alerted since December 2020, during the U20 Africa Cup of Nations qualifying tournament for the UNIFFAC zone (Central African Football Federations Union) played in Equatorial Guinea, the federation never took any measures beyond preventive and short-lived sanctions when the scandal was published two years later.

Then a member of the technical staff of the youth national teams, former international Papy Kimoto had nevertheless warned vice-president Theo Binamungu. “I confronted him in front of almost all the staff members, asking him to do something because it’s too much. The children and some players were suffering from this abuse. I spoke to him about it, but what was done? Nothing, it continues.”

Threatened after speaking out in public, Kimoto has always stood by his words. “Nobody wants to solve this problem, nobody wants to talk about it, but it has to be done.” It is a stance all the more important as the Leopards have qualified for the second World Cup in their history, generating impressive popular and political enthusiasm.

Football is king in Congo, but it faces another reality that everyone prefers to ignore, from the communes of Kinshasa to the youth national teams, even though the facts have been documented at international level. “FIFPRO is aware of extremely serious complaints from numerous footballers in the Democratic Republic of Congo”, the global players’ union told Sport News Africa. “These complaints are accompanied by evidence including explicit audio and written messages in which they are asked for sexual favours in exchange for playing time. Such brazen demands suggest that those seeking to abuse players believe they can act with impunity and without fear of being held accountable.”

Three and a half years later, the same impunity still prevails and does not stop the authors of WhatsApp audio messages demanding “sacrifices” from minors, “either with blood or with their bodies”, from roaming the corridors of Congolese football without the slightest trouble.