DRC: Pedocriminality continues to plague football

Revealed by Sport News Africa in November 2022, the pedocriminal networks operating in Congolese football were known to everyone. Officials, coaches, players—there was not a single person unaware of the stories and repeated imprisonments of several staff members for molesting minors.

Despite this, nearly four years later, the outcome is dire: the Congolese federation has taken no action, except to lift the provisional suspensions of six coaches by botching an investigation that never really took place.

As for FIFA, which also botched the investigation according to most witnesses and victims interviewed by its ethics committee, it was unable to enforce the suspension ordered against Jonathan Bukabakwa, who was officially banned for 20 years from football activities for abusing minors but continues to work at FC Esperanto.

Worse still, the world football governing body has yet to react despite Sport News Africa publishing videos this summer of the individual coaching adolescents. Summoned by FECOFA, he currently faces no further concrete penalty.

Promises of sanction

New president of FECOFA since May 20, Véron Mosengo-Omba has personally been alerted several times to the scale of the phenomenon and the resurgence of coaches already convicted by the civil courts for pedophilia. “We have zero tolerance for this kind of behavior,” he explained in mid-August to The Guardian. “We will punish anyone involved in this kind of conduct.”

A month later, no sanctions have been imposed. Summoned to FECOFA, Jonathan Bukabakwa explained that he had not been notified of FIFA’s decision and was able to return without issue to his club, FC Esperanto.

Other warnings have been made to FECOFA and its president, who promised swift action regarding the predators as well as the officials who continue to work with them. Words, yet again, followed by no action or concrete measures.

Fired for asking a young player for a photo of his penis

Provisionally suspended by FECOFA in November 2022 following the publication of the Sport News Africa investigation, Donga Epapa Cédric, known as ‘Moyindo’, was quietly able to find another job at the JMK club (Jeunesse montante de Kinshasa). However, in the spring, he was dismissed from JMK after asking a young player to send him a photo of his penis.

Not wanting to cause a scandal, the club did not give the real reason for his dismissal. Nevertheless, the information was indeed passed on in off to FECOFA this summer. That did not prevent Moyindo from joining a team in EPFKIN (Entente provinciale de football de Kinshasa), specifically FC La Promesse.

Another coach provisionally suspended in November 2022, Alain Kandudi, still works at AS Balayi. Having already served time in Makala prison for abusing minors, he served another (short) stint in prison earlier this summer for the same offenses before mysteriously being released very quickly thanks to well-placed support.

Back in the open, anyone can see him coaching the youths of MBD Masano on the GD field in Livulu, in the commune of Lemba, the epicenter of pedophilia in Congolese football (where he previously worked for FC Miel, on the Elimo Santu field). According to multiple testimonies, Kandudi continues to sexually blackmail several players for a pair of cleats, game time, or simply to release them from the team.

Known for asking young players to “come by the house”, he is one of many staff members who have taken advantage of the inaction of football authorities. FECOFA, FIFA, and even the Congolese civil justice system, which had promised “serious investigations”—who has actually done anything to curb this scourge that has persisted for more than two decades in national football? No one, and that is the real problem: in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, it is not the children who are protected, but the predators.