Our team
Ange Kasongo
Founder and editor in chief
Ange is a journalist, author and trainer. She is co-author of the investigation into sexual abuse during the Ebola response in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), published by the Thomson Reuters Foundation in 2021. Ange worked for Agence France-Presse as a journalist in charge of fact-checking in the DRC between 2019 and 2020. Since 2020, Ange has been organising workshops on fact-checking techniques in Kinshasa and elsewhere in the country in partnership with local media. She has already trained 200 journalists in Kinshasa. Selected by the US Embassy in 2022 to attend the Edward R. Murrow programme for journalists on ‘Media Responsibility in an Age of Disinformation’. Ange has a double Master's degree from the Ecole Supérieure de Journalisme and Sciences Po Lille, class of 92. She launched BALOBAKI Check in 2022.
Kerene Yala
Check editor
Kerene Yala has been editor and fact-checker at BALOBAKI Check since 2022, and is in charge of Newsletters. She is interested in social inclusion, diversity, sexual health and gender issues. From 2020 to 2023, she worked as a reporter for various local media, including Le peuple d'abord TV, DRC Sport TV, Flashinfoplus.com and 24newsagency.
She did her first fact-checking training in December 2021, and graduated from the Institut Facultaire des Sciences de l'Information et de la Communication (IFASIC) in 2022 with a degree in Foreign Policy Journalism.
Helen Vesperini
Advisor, in charge of partnerships
She had a long career in journalism, first in France and then across Africa, before turning to behavior change communication in the Democratic Republic of Congo, particularly in the fields of health, sexual and reproductive health and girls' education. She then worked for several international organizations, including the WFP and the Carter Center. She is in charge of partnerships and institutional development at BALOBAKI Check.
Merveil Kapongo
Project management assistant and administration
A graduate in IT Management from the Haute École de Commerce de Kinshasa/Gombe (HEC Kinshasa/Gombe), Merveil has worked in the Archives and New Technology Information and Communication Division (DANTIC) in the General Secretariat of the Ministry of Budget. He has worked at KOYEKOLA CENTER since 2024.
Moïse Esapa
Check editor
Moïse Esapa has been an editor at BALOBAKI CHECK since 2022, in charge of gathering rumours/claims on social networks and supervising correspondents. He is interested in digital and socio-political issues. Between 2018 and 2022 he worked as a journalist for Politico.cd, Dépêche.cd and Infos.cd. He took up Fact-checking in 2021 after completing training as part of a project funded by Internews and aimed at journalism students and implemented by Actualite.cd with the support of Internews. He has a degree in internal political journalism from the Institut facultaire des sciences de l'information et de la communication (IFASIC).
Samuel Ndolo Ngala
Fact- checker - Balobaki Check
His career in the print media began in 2020, when he joined Un Plus magazine as a storyteller and head of the story section, a position he held until 2023.After that, he moved on to editorial projects including Awa Magazine, and also volunteered as a journalist for the newspaper of the Francophonie Games in 2023. He holds a degree in domestic political journalism from the Institut facultaire des sciences de l'information et de la communication (IFASIC, 2020-2022). Trained in Fact-checking for the first time in 2022.
Fact-checking contributors
Deborah Mangili
Researcher - Balobaki Check fact-checker
She is a young researcher in Information and Communication Sciences, and a member of the Information and Communication Sciences Research Laboratory (LARSICOM). After obtaining her Master 2 in journalism, specializing in domestic politics at the University of Information and Communication Sciences (UNISIC), she began her teaching career in this field a year later.
Glodi Mirembe
Contributing writer
Glodi Mirembe is a journalist based in Butembo, in the east of the DRC. A graduate in Information and Communication Sciences from the Université de l'Assomption in Congo (UAC), he launched his career in journalism in 2019. A journalist and reporter for the regional radio station Radio Moto Butembo-Beni, he joined Balobaki Check in 2024 after completing a training course in Fact-checking at the MONUSCO news verification department in Beni in 2023.
Samuel Isenge
Contributing writer
A Balobaki contributing writer since April 2024, Samuel is a freelance journalist working in the eastern region of the DRC, based in the town of Beni. He has a degree in Organisational Communication and has worked for the local media and UNICEF's Ponabana.com blog. After a Fact-checking course in September 2023 organised by Club RFI in Kinshasa, he decided to join the world of fact-checking to help create a safer digital space.
Ravanelly Ntumba
Author
Attracted to fact-checking in 2021 after presenting a report on fake news in her final year of her Masters, Ravanelly joined BALOBAKI in 2022. She is also a correspondent for the pan-African channel Business 24 Africa and presenter of the programme 7 jours in the DRC. Ravanelly graduated from the Institut Facultaire des Sciences de l'Information et de la Communication (IFASIC) in 2022 with a degree in Foreign Policy Journalism.
Asaph Mawonda
Auteur
Web radio journalist at Rbim Radio since 2019 and Kinshasa Times, blogger for RFI Mondoblog. Also trained by SAMSA AFRICA in partnership with the French Embassy and the Institut Facultaire des Sciences de l'Information et de la Communication (IFASIC). Asaph moved into fact-checking in 2021 as part of a project funded by Internews for the Lokuta Mabe website under the responsibility of Ange Kasongo. He holds a postgraduate degree in political journalism from IFASIC.
Board of Directors
Aimé Gata-Kambundi
Pathy Mabuisa
Faced with the scourge of misinformation on social networks, where the public is often manipulated for social, political or economic ends, Pathy Mabuisa raises community awareness of the danger of misinformation in these new channels for disseminating information, which are multiplying, leaving very little room for official channels.
Lys Mbala
Gédéon Wembi Kasongo
Koyekola Center Finance Officer, project monitoring and evaluation
Gédéon Wembi Kasongo, who holds a degree in Management from the University of Johannesburg in South Africa, is passionate about finance, good governance, accounting and communication, all of which stem from his university training. He has attended several training courses at the Institut des auditeurs internes du Congo (IIA Congo), and works as a financial auditor for the Agence congolaise des Grands Travaux (ACGT), a project management consultant.Through Koyekola Center, Gédéon Wembi KASONGO is committed to promoting quality information in the community.