Kinshasa Hassle: A Life-Threatening Event
Claudia and Walter were swapping stories about dangerous times they'd been through. Claudia then told him about a very scary experience she had outside Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of
Congo. "So, in 2010," she began, "I started a non-profit association called River of Hope. I had no money and no exact plan, but I dreamed of building a school somewhere in the world." Walter
quickly asked, "But why Congo? And how can you start a project with no money?"
Claudia explained that this dream had been with her for 20 years. It began when she was a flight attendant for Swissair. She visited a kindergarten in Nairobi that the airline supported. The happy children and the mothers cooking or working in the garden left a very strong impression on her. Walter, who used to manage huge projects worth billions, smiled and said, "Well, that's a very interesting way to kick off a project." Claudia then explained how this wish to build a school and help children get an education – which is a basic human right – pushed her forward. She quickly told the story of how they began in 2010 and then, unexpectedly, seven years later in 2017, they were sued in Kinshasa by the football coach and his Congolese sister who lived in Switzerland at the time.
My 11th Visit - The Scariest One
This trip had been eagerly awaited since her last visit in March 2017. Claudia arrived alone in May 2019, just one month before her daughter's wedding. Her plans quickly changed two days after she arrived. She was threatened by the very people she had trusted most when they started the project.
It all began when two unknown men arrived on a motorbike at their campus. They said they were from the Secret Service and demanded to see her passport. They told her her visa wasn't valid and she had to go with them to their office. Claudia refused. She told them that Christoph, who had been her project manager since the very first day in 2010, and she would follow them later. But they didn't! They knew something was wrong and that they had to get out of there because the Center, in the middle of nowhere, was not safe and too far away to get immediate help. They spent one more night at the center, but she was terrified that 'they' would return. The experience had truly scared her! Her fear grew because her room could only be locked with a simple padlock, bats made terrible noises under the roof, and the cricket jumping freely around her room made her even more jumpy.
Once 'those men' left, they immediately called her friends in Kinshasa and told them everything. Her friends practically ordered them to come; they would pick them up by car and hide them in one of their apartments in town. They even got protection from the real Secret Service and reported the event to the Swiss Embassy. The Embassy found such "Wild West" behavior quite unbelievable. Christoph, her project manager, started getting threats over the phone, which were straight away tracked by the Secret Service. He was told that if Claudia tried to escape, they would grab her at the airport and throw her in jail.
And who was the shadowy figure behind all these very real threats?
To Claudia’s surprise and horror, it turned out to be Mr. Nshombo, the brother of the man with whom they started the football project. He had accused them in March 2017 in court, claiming that the Tala Mosika Center was his property.
His main accusations were:
- First, he wanted the court to decide that he owned the land where their center was built. He claimed he should get the land from its Swiss owners, but he had no proof.
- Second, he demanded that the Congolese government should take control of the property and let the Catholic Church manage it.
- Third, he wanted to kick out the entire organization – started by Claudia Doron – and make them pay a fine of $20,000 for his supposed lost income since 2017. He argued he could no longer do business from the Tala Mosika Centre.
Together with their local lawyer, Christoph managed the case for River of Hope and Tala Mosika. He went to court many times, showing documents that proved certain people were trying to steal the center from them using fake evidence and dishonest methods. This took a huge effort and caused the whole team countless sleepless nights. The same question kept coming up: "How can someone you worked with in harmony for seven years, building something strong together, betray you like this? How could he hire a former Secret Service agent who was fired and threaten us this way?" Claudia was told that, sadly, this often happens because of greed and jealousy. And that's exactly what she experienced firsthand during her eleventh trip to the Congo in 2019.
The Court Rules:
The court made decisions:
First, Mr. Nshombo was not the owner of the land. He had even admitted in an official report to the Kinshasa public prosecutor's office that he received money from River of Hope to buy the land as a helper.
Second, he was found guilty of trying to trick the court by asking for the property of others to be taken. This also showed he was acting against a foreign partner who was helping the Congolese people.
Mr. Nshombo was fined $10,000. He and his team were no longer allowed to enter Tala Mosika. Also, Mr. Nshombo and his partners were put on a blacklist. The Swiss Embassy informed the other Embassies of this “Tracasserie” in Kinshasa.
Despite all these problems, Claudia had time to visit the Ministry of Gender and Family of the Congolese government. There, she found her picture on the wall next to other women who had done great work in the DRC. She felt very honoured.
On her last day, she was escorted by the Secret Service. They took her directly to the Security Director of Ndjili International Airport and also spoke to the Public Prosecutor who was in charge of their case. She was terribly sorry about what happened and promised to do everything possible to catch the former Secret Service agent who was still at large. The Security Director made sure that her path through check-in was smooth and easy. He gave her his card and said, "You can come back whenever you want; you are one of the investors that the country's new leaders are looking for and desperately need."
Never in her life was Claudia so relieved to sit on a plane heading home. All of a sudden, she felt relief as the fear disappeared. She was in tears. Had it all been worth the trouble? What if she had never made it to her own daughter's wedding? It was too awful to even think about!
When she landed in Brussels, she was surprised to find a message from Christoph. It had a link to a Congolese newspaper article. The article described what had happened to her in those last few days. It clearly stated that she was harassed by a crook, who was named and pictured. It also said the police had him in custody. Such a quick response! And such good news! Claudia was surprised, and most of all, relieved.
As soon as she arrived home, she told her family about these events. Her son made things very clear to her: "Mum, this is the last time you go to the Congo! Do you understand?"
Claudia had to explain to him that she wasn't threatened by the government but by some criminal gang. The Congolese authorities had taken this threat seriously very quickly. They had taken care of her safety. She couldn't punish her own team by not returning to them – otherwise, those dishonest people would have won.
This year in 2025 we are celebrating 15 years River of Hope and for this celebration
Claudia wrote a song for the Center “Tala Mosika” who has now over 500 students
a primary school, a Technical Secondary School and a Football Academy.