Children taken from their families in Congo were adopted in Belgium

At least three Congolese children, declared as orphans and adopted in Belgium, still have biological parents in their country of origin. After being kidnapped, they were taken to an orphanage in Kinshasa where they were given false names, Het Laatste Nieuws reported on Friday. The adoptive parents knew nothing.
 

The federal prosecutor's office discovered that the children, who arrived in Belgium in 2015, had been kidnapped. They were given other identities and dates of birth, even though they were not intended for adoption at all.

Reporters from the newspaper Het Laatste Nieuws went looking for the biological parents and found them. They explained that they had the opportunity to send their offspring to a camp, through a youth organization, from which they never returned. Defrauded, the parents had no money to pay a lawyer and were also unable to count on help from the local authorities. According to journalists, it appears that some high-ranking local officials are involved in the trafficking or have at least decided to turn a blind eye.

When the authorities learned that reporters were looking into the case, they were questioned for three days, before being released after the intervention of the Belgian embassy.

The kidnapped children came from the orphanage of Julienne Mpemba, a Belgian-Congolese lawyer from Namur who previously appeared on a PS list during the elections. The person concerned was arrested last year in Belgium, but was released by the indictment chamber after a month and a half awaiting trial.

Since 2013, Julienne Mpemba and the orphanage have also been associated, by Congolese human rights organizations, with the disappearance and kidnapping of young children.