DRC pushes back against former colonial ruler as $60 million passport corruption case revives questions over old ties

The Brussels Council Chamber’s decision follows a years-long investigation into the passport programme and could lead to what civil parties describe as the first criminal trial in Belgium involving a Belgian company accused of bribing foreign public officials.

The allegations have not been proven in court, and no trial date has been set.

The case is the latest development to bring Congo’s long and complicated relationship with Belgium back into focus, decades after the country gained independence from Belgian colonial rule in 1960.

According to Reuters, the investigation was triggered in part by a 2020 complaint from 51 Congolese citizens and anti-corruption organisations seeking to join an existing probe into the passport contract.

The scheme is alleged to have resulted in the diversion of nearly US$60 million.

It followed a 2017 Reuters investigation into the financial arrangements surrounding Congo’s biometric passport programme. Reuters reported that millions of dollars generated by the programme were channelled offshore, including to a company linked to a relative of then-President Joseph Kabila.

According to documents reviewed by Reuters, the Congolese government received just $65 from each passport issued, while most of the revenue went to Belgian firm Semlex and a small Gulf-based company called LRPS, which received $60 per passport.

Registered in Ras Al Khaimah in the UAE, LRPS is reportedly owned by Makie Makolo Wangoi, whom a person with direct knowledge of the deal described as a close relative of then-President Joseph Kabila. Documents relating to the company’s share transfer supported the claim, although the evidence was not conclusive.

Belgian authorities have not established a conclusive link between that company and Kabila’s relative, while the former president has said he is not directly associated with the case.

Congolese human rights activist Fred Bauma, one of the civil parties, said the proceedings could help establish what happened to money generated through the passport programme.

“We have a right to know where our money went,” Bauma said after Monday’s decision.

Semlex previously rejected the allegations, saying in 2017 that it was the target of a smear campaign.

The case adds a new layer to Congo’s efforts to assert greater control over its affairs and scrutinise relationships with foreign companies and institutions.

That push has also extended to Congo’s colonial-era economic records. In a separate and earlier dispute, Kinshasa sought access to geological and mining archives held in Belgium, arguing that the information could help the country better understand and manage its vast mineral wealth.

Belgium has since worked with Congo on plans to digitise and progressively return access to the records.

The two matters are not legally connected, but together they illustrate the changing nature of Congo’s relationship with its former colonial ruler — from the legacy of resource extraction and information control to demands for greater accountability over commercial arrangements.

The DRC remains one of the world’s most mineral-rich countries, holding major deposits of cobalt, copper, lithium and other strategic minerals. Its government has increasingly sought to capture more value from those resources and strengthen its control over foreign companies operating in the country.

For now, however, the focus is on the Semlex proceedings. The Belgian court’s decision only sends the defendants to trial; it does not establish guilt.