Kongawi was only 12 years old when he was arrested by soldiers in broad daylight, without explanation, in the town of Dongo, in the province of Mongala. He had simply gone to visit his aunt to ask for help paying his school fees. He never made it home.
That day, in October 2010, his life changed forever.
At the time, violent conflict was raging between the Enyele and Monzaya communities. In an attempt to “restore order,” soldiers from Kinshasa were deployed to the region and began arbitrarily arresting young men across the town.
Kongawi was one of them.
Without trial or formal charges, the young boy was taken with other teenagers to Gemena, then transported by military aircraft to Kinshasa. Disoriented and terrified, he arrived at the gates of Makala Central Prison on October 7th, 2010.
Upon arrival, he was placed in Pavilion 5. With no legal or social support, Kongawi was forced to survive in inhumane conditions: one daily ration of “vungule” (a mix of maize and beans), extremely limited access to water, and long nights sleeping up high near the barred ventilation windows to avoid violence.
His health deteriorated rapidly. He was transferred twice to Pavilion 7 for malnourished detainees, where humanitarian aid from the ICRC provided minimal food supplements. He was also admitted to the prison infirmary with a severe hernia that nearly required surgery.
This was his daily reality for ten and a half years.
Several of the boys arrested with him did not survive the prison. Others died during a mass escape in 2017 orchestrated by the “Mwana Nsemi” sect.
Left alone, Kongawi turned inward — guided by his faith and a quiet resolve to avoid conflict at all costs.
A miraculous encounter
In August 2020, after a religious service in prison, Kongawi met one of our team members. Soon after, he was introduced to Maître Guy Kabeya, one of our legal partners, who agreed to take on his case. For the first time in a decade, the possibility of justice began to take shape.
After several months of legal procedures and a media campaign led with our partners, Kongawi was finally released in April 2021, a week after Easter.
When he walked out of prison, he expressed no anger, no bitterness. Only deep exhaustion — and a quiet desire to rebuild.
He describes himself as “resurrected.”
But freedom alone cannot restore what was taken from him: his entire childhood.
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