African Facts can reveal that Kaumbu Mandungu Bula, one of the key advisers to the Congolese presidency, has direct links to Rwanda’s former first family in exile. Members of their network travel between Europe, Kinshasa and the Kivus, while others hold command positions in the Congolese army.
While the conflict in the east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo pitting the Kinshasa authorities and a coalition of armed groups against the March 23 Movement (M23, backed by Rwanda) has been ongoing for nearly five years, one clan is increasingly advancing its agenda and ambitions in an open manner: the Habyarimanas. Rwanda’s former first family appears to see the war as a possible way out of its downfall and the disgrace that followed.
Although his first trip to Kinshasa in June 2024 was made in complete secrecy, Jean-Luc, the youngest son of the Habyarimana family, subsequently travelled there in full view of the public. He was even filmed in November 2025. The controversial decision of 20 August 2025 to drop the case against his mother, Agathe Kanziga, who was under investigation in France for her alleged role in the genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda, is likely to have played a part in the clan’s choice to push Jean-Luc into the limelight. However, that ruling has since been overturned by the investigating chamber of the Paris Court of Appeal, which on 6 May 2026 ordered the resumption of the investigation into Agathe Kanziga. She remains suspected of the gravest of crimes.
Nevertheless, the former inner circle of politicians and business figures who ruled Rwanda until 1994 – commonly known as the Akazu (“the little household” in Kinyarwanda) – has never lost interest in the region and still harbours hopes of returning and playing a role there. In this context, the current conflict tearing the Kivus apart is a boon. The Habyarimana family has a strong network within the pro-government coalition fighting the M23 and Rwanda – a network that now extends right to the heart of the Palais de la Nation, the seat of the Congolese presidency.
One particularly significant relationship was formed during the Habyarimana family’s exile with the son of a senior Congolese official from the Mobutu Sese Seko regime: Kaumbu Mandungu Bula, nicknamed “Kao”, who was living in Belgium at the time and is now a close adviser to the Congolese president. The story begins nearly two decades ago.
The Akazu’s new generation
On 8 December 2008, Jean-Luc Habyarimana, aged 34 at the time, sent an email to a Belgian correspondent. Attached to the message, seen by African Facts, were the articles of association of an international non-profit organisation to be registered in the Central African Republic. Officially, its purpose was to assist and defend Central African orphans and combat social exclusion. The organisation’s secretary-general was a certain Fabien Singaye. Jean-Luc, for his part, was given the title of “adviser”. A few months later, on 25 March 2009, he signed a notarised deed, also seen by African Facts. It authorised Fabien Singaye to finalise the organisation’s registration in the CAR.
The name of Fabien Singaye, aged 50 at the time, has haunted the Rwandan file for many years. A son-in-law of Félicien Kabuga (a businessman suspected of being the chief financier of the genocide against the Tutsi, who was arrested in France in May 2020 and who died in May 2026 after being declared unfit to stand trial), Singaye had previously been a Rwandan spy in Switzerland. Initially involved in undermining the French investigation into the assassination of Rwandan dictator Juvénal Habyarimana on 6 April 1994, he then reinvented himself as a “special adviser” to François Bozizé, then president of the Central African Republic.
Plans for a foundation in the Central African Republic had been in the pipeline for several months. In addition to Jean-Luc Habyarimana, they involved his older brothers, Léon, then 39, and Bernard, then 37, as well as their cousins, Antoine Mukiza, then 35, and Robert Rugwiro, then 31. Mukiza is the son of Agathe Kanziga’s elder brother Protais Zigiranyirazo, widely regarded as the mastermind behind the Akazu, who died in exile in Niger on 3 August 2025. Rugwiro is the son of Juvénal Habyarimana’s younger brother, Dr Séraphin Bararengana, sentenced in absentia in Rwanda to 30 years’ imprisonment for genocide and living in exile in Gabon.
In June 2009, Antoine Mukiza and Robert Rugwiro established a non-profit organisation in Brussels whose articles of association reproduce, almost word for word, those of the foundation in the Central African Republic, of which they are also members, alongside the Habyarimana brothers. African Facts wrote to them to find out more. They did not respond to requests for comment.
Offshore arrangements
On 23 November 2007, a company bearing the same name as the foundation was established in London through a UK legal entity owned by three Belgian nationals residing in Antwerp and Málaga. The latter entity had initially been set up via a Seychelles-based service provider. The first vehicle was wound up in September 2009 and replaced by another company, this time set up via a Panamanian entity. This new company was swiftly wound up in October 2010. Another company was set up in the UK via the same Panamanian structure for Fabien Singaye and was also wound up the following year. Unusual arrangements for a charitable venture.
And for good reason: the purpose of these commercial companies is anything but humanitarian. Documents seen by African Facts indicate that their sole function was to make a profit. The owners of these companies have used such arrangements before: near-identical companies registered on the same day via other companies or nominees, only to be dissolved after a very short existence.
Furthermore, certain documents seen by African Facts raise questions about the true purpose of the foundation project. On 20 May 2008, for instance, Jean-Luc Habyarimana signed a contract with the London-based company for a short-term investment of €125,000. However, this transaction was not as philanthropic as it might seem, given the staggering returns he stood to gain from it. Under the terms of the contract, the company was due to repay him €250,000 between December 2008 and December 2009.
The Habyarimanas’ Congolese friend
The man behind Jean-Luc Habyarimana’s humanitarian project was Kaumbu Mandungu Bula, also known as “Kao”. The son of Antoine Mandungu Bula Nyati (a former Congolese minister who died in Benin in 2002), then 25, was living in exile in Belgium at the time. In November 2007, he drafted the articles of association of a first foundation, bearing the name later used for the Central African one. This foundation was intended to be registered in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo, as a subsidiary of the London-based company that was set up that same month. The registration was completed in the summer of 2008.
Alongside the Congolese, Belgian and Central African structures and the London-based company, another foundation with the same name – the fifth one – was established through the Habyarimana clan in Libreville, Gabon, in 2009. African Facts has obtained the articles of association of this organisation, whose auditor was then a member of the Gabonese presidential family.
The sums of money circulating within this organisation were substantial. By the end of 2007, “Kao” and the Habyarimana family had reportedly received in cash no less than $382,000 (€260,000 at the time). This money came from a Swiss bank account, which had itself been credited by a Panamanian company whose capital consisted of bearer shares (which carry no record of ownership). This company had been set up through a Maltese trust company. Between 2008 and 2009, Jean-Luc Habyarimana reportedly received €325,000 in cash from the London-based companies set up in 2007 and 2009, according to a document seen by African Facts.
African Facts found no trace of any philanthropic or charitable activity carried out by these foundations in the DRC, the CAR or Gabon. Jean-Luc, Léon and Bernard Habyarimana, and Kaumbu Mandungu Bula, did not respond to requests for comment.
“Mama Agathe”
On 17 May 2009, Jean-Luc Habyarimana received an email (in French) from Kaumbu Mandungu Bula, known as “Kao”. “Hi everyone, I’m getting back to you because I haven’t heard from Léon [Habyarimana, Ed.] since the other day. I suppose he’s got the money,” he wrote in the message, seen by African Facts. “Could you keep me posted, because when Mama Agathe contacts me, she’s never aware of what’s going on. […] Communication is very important.” A few hours later, he went further in another email addressed to a different correspondent. “The other day, I received a call from Mama Agathe and realised that her sons aren’t keeping her properly informed about the transfers,” he wrote. The email referred to a bank transfer of €15,000 intended for “Mama Agathe” via her son Léon.
“Mama Agathe” refers to Agathe Kanziga, the widow of Rwandan president Juvénal Habyarimana and mother of Jean-Luc, Léon and Bernard Habyarimana. She is also the aunt of Robert Rugwiro and Antoine Mukiza. She is suspected of being the matriarch of the Akazu, an organisation structured in concentric circles around her family clan. Agathe Kanziga has been under investigation in France since 2007, with a nine-month interruption in 2025-26, for her alleged involvement in the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda. She has always denied the existence of the Akazu and any personal involvement in the political or business activities attributed to it. Pending a possible trial, she is presumed innocent.
The messages and documents seen by African Facts leave little room for doubt as to the Habyarimana family’s involvement in the pseudo-humanitarian foundations set up in Africa by the younger generation of the family and the related offshore transactions. They also show what the family stood to gain from this venture. African Facts has also gathered additional evidence confirming the links between the Habyarimana clan and Kaumbu Mandungu Bula, also known as Kao.
On 16 May 2012, Fabien Singaye was questioned by a French investigating judge as part of the investigation into the assassination of Juvénal Habyarimana on 6 April 1994. In a transcript, which African Facts has seen, Singaye mentions Kaumbu Mandungu Bula, describing him as a friend of Jean-Luc Habyarimana.
On 6 September 2016, French gendarmes searched the Habyarimana family villa in Courcouronnes (Essonne) as part of the investigation into Agathe Kanziga’s alleged involvement in the genocide against the Tutsi. They seized computer equipment, loose notes, and a handwritten address book, all of which have been seen by African Facts. Under the letter “F” in this address book are three telephone numbers belonging to Fabien Singaye, while under the letter “K”, two Belgian numbers refer to “Kao” himself.
The address book tends to indicate that contact had been maintained between the Habyarimana family and Kaumbu Mandungu Bula, known as Kao, almost a decade after the foundation venture, suggesting strong ties. Kaumbu Mandungu Bula has risen a long way since the shady affair involving the foundations. He now holds a key position in Kinshasa.
The close adviser to the Congolese president
In January 2023, Félix Tshisekedi appointed Kaumbu Mandungu Bula as his “special adviser”. “Kao” is now part of the inner circle surrounding the head of state. He has gained control over mining contracts, arms purchases, military cooperation and the deployment of mercenaries. This is a pivotal role in a country at war with the M23 in the east.
In November 2023, a presidential decree officially recognised a disparate collection of armed groups as “reservists”; they have since become known as the Wazalendo (“the patriots” in Kiswahili). This coalition is spearheaded by paramilitary organisations formed by Rwandan genocide perpetrators in exile, who are responsible for war crimes and crimes against humanity in the DRC, as well as Congolese Hutu militias acting as their auxiliaries. On 16 April 2024, Kaumbu Mandungu Bula personally attended a meeting with Wazalendo representatives in Kinshasa, where he urged them to stay mobilised and continue recruiting young Congolese men.
He is not the only individual with ties to the Habyarimana family within the upper echelons of the pro-government coalition. African Facts has previously revealed the direct and long-standing links between the former Rwandan first family and General Janvier Mayanga wa Gishuba, the national coordinator in charge of organisation and intelligence for the Wazalendo militias, as well as with Aloys Ntiwiragabo, founder of the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR, the main Rwandan Hutu armed group in the DRC). More recently, African Facts investigated Thaddée Kwitonda, a Hutu Power emissary in exile who moved in circles close to the presidency in Kinshasa.
The prolonged presence of “Kao” and other friends of the Habyarimana family within the presidential entourage and the Congolese military command appears to be paying off. “Jean-Luc Habyarimana has become a political leader who advocates peace and national reconciliation. […] We can also have Rwandan friends with whom we can discuss issues of peace and national reconciliation in Rwanda,” said (in French) Patrick Muyaya, the Congolese information minister and government spokesperson, on 8 April 2026. This statement suggests the existence of a dialogue with the heir to the clan that plunged Rwanda into utter horror 32 years ago.
In reality, Kinshasa’s options are far more limited than one might think. In order to free himself from the networks and influence of former President Joseph Kabila within the Congolese state, Félix Tshisekedi had to rely on a small inner circle of close associates whom he had met during his years in exile in Belgium from 1985 to 2011. These associates did not possess the required skills. He also had to engage with the network of the Habyarimanas’ supporters, whom he had also encountered in the diaspora. He must now work with them; without their support, he would be unable to continue the war in the east of the country, a region over which Kinshasa no longer has any control.
