DRC: ban from August 21st on travel by non-registered minors

Kinshasa, August 7^th, 2025 (CPA).- A decision prohibiting, as of August 21st 2025, the travel of minors from Kinshasa, capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), who are not registered in the National Fund for the Promotion of Women and the Protection of Children (Fonafen), has been taken on Thursday, at the launching of an awareness campaign for travel agency managers.  « After August 21^st, no child will be able to travel outside the city province of Kinshasa without being registered by Fonafen. This is to protect children.  We must identify them and monitor their movements at all costs. This has been the main focus of the awareness campaign we have just launched among travel agency managers working in the city province of Kinshasa, » has declared Mamitsho Kimona, provincial director of Fonafen/Kinshasa.  She has explained that this registration is being done to combat child trafficking and the high rate of child abductions and kidnappings, because last year the rate was too high, leading officials from the ministry responsible for child protection to issue a decree instructing anyone travelling with a child to first register that child with Fonafen.  ‘It is the consequence of events that led us to this ambiguity. We have seen that in Kinshasa there were many children wandering around, and when you approached them, they were unable to express themselves because they did not speak any language, not even Lingala,’ has said Ms Kimona.  ‘We have understood that there was a high rate of child abductions in the provinces, with the children coming here to Kinshasa. When we question them, we have learned that these children had been stolen because they did not know where they were from or how they had arrived in Kinshasa,’ she has added.  This is the reason behind this initiative: any child who wants to travel must be identified to avoid all these inconveniences, she has continued.   The complementary work with other services will also be a priority, according to the Provincial Director.  « We work in tandem with other state institutions. Fonafen does not take away the responsibilities of other services but rather complements them. In this regard, we will be working alongside the General Direction of Migration (DGM); the National Intelligence Agency; the Ministry in charge of Transport and Communications; the public or private transport establishments (…) », she has specified.  The State and parastatal authorities are all involved in this campaign, which is based on Ministerial Decree 065/cab/Min. GEFA/ MBMM / SEAB/ 2024 of January 19^th, 2024 implementing Decree No. 09/ 37/10, which assigns responsibility to Fonafen, has concluded Mamitsho Kimona.  CPA/