On August 5, 2025, journalist Fiston Wilondja Mazambi, was found dead in a pool of blood, with a rope around his neck, on a highway in the eastern, rebel-controlled city of Bukavu, his wife told CPJ.
Wilondja's wife, who CPJ agreed not to name for security reasons, said rebels abducted her husband the previous day, August 4, at around 6 p.m., near their Bukavu home. The M23, which is part of the Congo River Alliance (AFC) rebel coalition, took control of Bukavu in February 2025. Local media and Journalistes En Danger, a Congolese press freedom group, reported that Wilondja was taken by an “armed commando.”
Wilondja was a freelance reporter and photographer, and worked for the National Press Union of Congo’s (UNPC) ethics and professional conduct monitoring body. Le Souverain Libre reported that Wilondja had previously worked for them and Bukavu’s Radio Télévision Ngoma ya Kivu.
Wilondja’s wife told CPJ that armed men attacked their home on July 30, looking for Wilondja, his computer, and camera, and said he had information about the war and was a nuisance as a journalist. She said Wilondja was not home and the men could not find his equipment, but they attacked her in front of their children.
A local UNPC official told CPJ, on condition of anonymity, citing fear of reprisal, that Wilondja said he was investigating several sensitive issues as part of his freelance work, including a possible mass grave in Bukavu, illegal gold mining by the M23, and rebels seizing vehicles from Bukavu companies. The official said he believed Wilondja was targeted and killed for this reporting.
Pacifique Muliri, a journalist with the state-owned Congolese Press Agency (ACP), told CPJ in September that he had gone into hiding after the killing of Wilondja and two other people who had helped him investigate allegations of illegal gold mining by the government and rebels in Lomera. Muliri also received death threats.
The DRC communications ministry responded to Wilonda’s killing on August 5 by saying it “condemns in the strongest terms this criminal act” and “the continuing violation of fundamental rights in the occupied territories where freedom of the press is seriously undermined by threats, kidnappings, [and] murders targeting journalists.”
As of November 2025, CPJ’s request for comment to M23 spokesperson Willy Ngoma via messaging app received no response.