For peace to hold in eastern Congo, reconstruction must be clean: honest public servants coming back, schools and health centres rebuilt and given back to the people, public revenue collected digitally and accounted for, and every dollar of aid – including emergency health funds – reaching where it should.
Eastern Congo is coming out of war. After AFC/M23 withdrew from Uvira in January 2026, the Government launched the progressive restoration of State authority in South Kivu, with Uvira as its pilot city; on 21 September 2026 the Deputy Prime Minister for the Interior opened a community workshop there on the return of the State. Administration, schools, health centres and public revenue now have to be rebuilt – in a province where war has made corruption worse and where control mechanisms barely exist. Now is when it all happens.
The DRC ranks 163rd of 182 countries in the Corruption Perceptions Index: among the countries perceived as most corrupt.
Transparency International, CPI 2025
Up to US$17 million a month in taxes was raised by the AFC/M23 during the M23/Rwanda occupation, and South Kivu lost 84% of its provincial revenue.
Governor of South Kivu, April 2026
Up to US$33 million a month is reported lost to fraud, dumping and leakage of revenue at the borders of South Kivu.
Ministry of Foreign Trade, June 2026
Of the US$962 million disbursed by donors for the Ebola response, more than US$700 million could not be traced to the organisations on the ground.
Africa CDC, October 2026
The fighting has closed 1,768 schools in South Kivu, leaving more than 688,000 pupils out of school.
OCHA, quoted in February 2026
536 classrooms have been destroyed in 66 schools, and 104 schools are occupied by displaced people.
Ministry of Education, March 2025
Years of fighting in North and South Kivu have displaced families, emptied schools and cut provinces off from the State. The return of the administration is starting in Uvira, but security remains fragile and the institutions have to be rebuilt almost from scratch.
In war, whoever holds the road levies the tax. Armed groups taxed trade and the population – up to US$17 million a month for the AFC/M23, according to the governor – and illegal checkpoints remain: on the RN5 between Kamanyola and Baraka, travellers pass nearly ten barriers and pay at least 5,000 Congolese francs at each.
With a score of 20/100 in the Corruption Perceptions Index, the DRC is among the countries perceived as most corrupt. In the east, inspection services, courts and audit bodies are often absent: public money and posts can be diverted without anyone noticing.
Classrooms destroyed or occupied, health centres looted – four were destroyed in Masisi in October 2026, and the Birambizo hospital was looted on the day it reopened. Reconstruction money will arrive fast: without monitoring, part of it will never become a school or a health centre.
During the 17th Ebola epidemic, declared in May 2026 and spread to North and South Kivu, donors disbursed US$962 million – but more than US$700 million could not be traced to the organisations on the ground. In 2020 a former health minister was convicted of embezzling Ebola funds: emergency money needs public, real-time tracking.
Fraud at the borders costs South Kivu about US$33 million a month, according to the Ministry of Foreign Trade. Inside the province, taxes are still largely collected by hand, in cash and with paper receipts: by CERC’s estimate, up to US$800,000 a month is lost in this way. Digitalising taxes and their collection is one of the strongest levers against this leakage.
After a war, a lot of money arrives quickly – reconstruction budgets, humanitarian aid, emergency health funds – while controls are weak. If posts are bought, if schools that were paid for are never built, if medicines and Ebola funds are diverted, if taxes end up in private pockets, people lose trust in the State. That anger feeds the armed groups again.
Corruption is not a side effect of the conflict: it finances it and prolongs it. Illegal taxes at checkpoints, fraud at the borders and revenue collected in cash weaken the State at the very moment it has to prove it can serve the people better than the armed groups.
What we believe
If the people who come back to serve the State act with integrity, if citizens – pupils, parents, patients, displaced people, traders – can follow and report what is happening, if taxes are paid digitally and published, and if every dollar of reconstruction and emergency aid is public and checked, then services come back, trust comes back, and peace holds.
That the officials who return to serve the State are chosen for their integrity and answer to the people.
GovCheck · integrity leadership course
That every school paid for is really rebuilt, and that children go back to it.
EduCheck · Integrity Clubs
That health centres receive what is meant for them – including emergency funds such as those of the Ebola response – even where the State cannot go.
HealthCheck · tracking of emergency funds
That taxes and duties reach the public treasury – not armed groups, checkpoints or private pockets – and that citizens can see what is collected and how it is spent.
GovCheck · revenue monitoring
That every dollar of reconstruction, funded by the Government or its partners, is public and checked.
Social alert system · GovCheck (govcheck.cerc.cd)
We look at every action so that it does not make tensions between communities worse.
Reports can be anonymous; we publish no data that could put anyone at risk.
Displaced people, women, young people and people with disabilities decide with us.
We support institutions without taking their place, and we stay independent and impartial.
2027
First monitoring of officials, schools and health centres, and a measure of the starting point, with the province and communities.
2028–2029
Fizi and the other territories where the administration returns, building on the lessons from Uvira.
2030
Beni, the next pilot city announced by the Government, then the other areas that reopen.
Our numerical targets will be set in 2027 with our partners, after measuring the starting point in Uvira.
Since the fall of Bukavu in February 2025, CERC has closed its Bukavu office and works remotely: our apps let us keep monitoring public services where our team cannot go.
Authorities, revenue agencies, donors, humanitarian actors and civil society organisations: join us so that the reconstruction of the east – and every dollar that pays for it – serves the people.
Report what you see in your school or health centre. Your feedback helps make education and health services in the DRC better and more transparent.
