“We had fled the Kamwina Nsapu conflict. We were hiding in the bush. A few days later, we saw two militiamen come to look for Chief Mbangu for a discussion. When he came out, he was arrested by a group of militiamen led by Tshilumba Marcel, nicknamed “the White Man”. They took my father to Masuika [30 kilometers from his village] where they killed him in public, before Mr. Mukini beheaded him, cut off his penis and hand - and then, after all that, they burned him alive. I witnessed the scene, they didn't know it was my father they were killing,” explains Stanis Mbangu, in tears. This Monday, March 3, 2025, the son of Chief Mbangu, elegantly dressed in traditional attire and regalia, came to shed light on the military court of former Western Kasai. The Catholic mission in the city of Masuika, in the territory of Luiza, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), is holding mobile court hearings in the case of the murder of the great chief of the Aka-Mulam group.
This case pits the military prosecutor's office and 283 victims against two defendants accused of war crimes of mutilation, murder, looting, rape and arson, participation in an insurrectional movement and criminal association. They were sentenced to death at the end of a first trial before the military garrison court. The death penalty has not been applied in the DRC since 2003, but it is on the statute books, several hundred individuals have been sentenced to it, and the government announced in April 2024 that it wanted to resume executions. The two convicts, dissatisfied with the sentence of October 4, 2023, have appealed. They are Marcel Tshilumba, identified as the one who fired the 12-gauge shot that killed the traditional chief, before ordering Emmanuel Mukini to behead him. Both agree that they participated in the arrest and subsequent execution of Chief Mbangu on May 5 and 6, 2017, but they claim to have acted under duress from a leader of the Kamwina Nsapu militia, an insurgency that engulfed the Congolese region of Kasai between 2016 and 2019.
The son Mbangu is a victim-witness at this trial. He is one of those who testify with their faces uncovered. But for these first three days of hearings of the itinerant court, devoted to the identification and hearing of witnesses and victims, their identity is mostly protected in order to preserve them from any reprisals. Dozens of militiamen have been arrested in Masuika, tried and convicted. The witnesses therefore donned long rust-colored robes, which covered them from head to toe and in which two openings for the eyes had been cut.
The other 21 witnesses took the stand to incriminate the accused Tshilumba and Mukini. They claim that, apart from the execution of Chief Mbangu, the accused pillaged, raped, set fire to and stole from a group of more than 15 villages, under the helpless gaze of the security services. The rain briefly disrupts the hearing, which is being held under big tents in front of a large audience. The crime took place one kilometer from here. The two defendants deny having participated in the looting, rapes, thefts and arson. Tshilumba admits to having brought Chief Mbangu on the orders of another militia chief, but he denies having pulled the trigger. Mukini, who was identified in a video of the execution found by the lawyers for the civil parties in which he clearly appears to be the one who beheaded and mutilated the victim, claims that it was in fact Tshilumba who fired the shot.
A trial in the community
It's an “educational” trial, says one of the attending residents. But not everyone agrees that the trial should be held on their land. “It's an old case, it's been 8 years. For us, these criminals have been convicted,” one of them says in a strong tone. The presence of the accused at the scene of the crimes brings back old memories, adds another. “We have never forgotten that apart from Chief Mbangu, we lost parents, brothers and sisters during the atrocities. Future generations must learn to never commit such damage again,” he says.
Masuika is an agro-pastoral agglomeration in the depths of the Kasaï, with a cosmopolitan population estimated at 20,104. The people live off agriculture, livestock and small trade. In addition to the fact that the trial was held here because the crimes were committed here, the court also wanted to get closer to the 283 victims who are part of the case and who live either in Masuika or in the surrounding villages. The very principle of these traveling hearings is to get closer to the communities affected by the violence. The Congolese justice system has been making these trips for a long time. Masuika is located 290 kilometers from Kananga, the capital of Central Kasai, with a population of over 2 million. It took the court delegations – lawyers, judges, prosecutors, partners and others – a day and a half to reach the trial venue, due to the disastrous state of the road.
The trial opened after at least four postponements. A regular financial partner of the judicial system in the DRC, the UNDP, was initially to contribute to its organization. But the UN agency finally withdrew, having not yet been able to adopt its budget for 2025. It is therefore the National Fund for Reparations for Victims (Fonarev) that alone is financing its proceedings. “One of Fonarev's missions is to ensure justice for the victims. It was with this in mind that we decided to finance these hearings on our own, when we realized that other partners were not ready,” explains Miran Mulumba, regional coordinator of this state agency. As a result, the Court also decided to hold a second appeal trial, that same week, in Masuika, even though it was scheduled to take place in another city, following the one on the murder of Chief Mbangu. The two war crimes trials could be concluded as early as March 7.
