Steve Wembi (born 20 July 1984) is a

criminologist Criminology (from Latin , "accusation", and Ancient Greek , ''-logia'', from λόγος ''logos'' meaning: "word, reason") is the study of crime and deviant behaviour. Criminology is an interdisciplinary field in both the behavioural and so ...

and

investigative journalist Investigative journalism is a form of journalism in which reporters deeply investigate a single topic of interest, such as serious crimes, political corruption, or corporate wrongdoing. An investigative journalist may spend months or years rese ...

based in

Kinshasa Kinshasa (; ; ln, Kinsásá), formerly Léopoldville ( nl, Leopoldstad), is the capital and largest city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Once a site of fishing and trading villages situated along the Congo River, Kinshasa is now one o ...

Democratic Republic of the Congo The Democratic Republic of the Congo (french: République démocratique du Congo (RDC), colloquially "La RDC" ), informally Congo-Kinshasa, DR Congo, the DRC, the DROC, or the Congo, and formerly and also colloquially Zaire, is a country in ...

and in

Nairobi Nairobi ( ) is the capital and largest city of Kenya. The name is derived from the Maasai phrase ''Enkare Nairobi'', which translates to "place of cool waters", a reference to the Nairobi River which flows through the city. The city proper ha ...

Kenya ) , national_anthem = "Ee Mungu Nguvu Yetu"() , image_map = , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Nairobi , coordinates = , largest_city = Nairobi , ...

.(f
"« Congo in Conversation » de Finbarr O’Reilly, lauréat du prix Carmignac"
RFI, April 28, 2020 (Accessed January 21, 2021). He has worked as a contributor for the

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

Al Jazeera Al Jazeera ( ar, الجزيرة, translit-std=DIN, translit=al-jazīrah, , "The Island") is a state-owned Arabic-language international radio and TV broadcaster of Qatar. It is based in Doha and operated by the media conglomerate Al Jazeera ...

and

Xinhua Xinhua News Agency (English pronunciation: )J. C. Wells: Longman Pronunciation Dictionary, 3rd ed., for both British and American English, or New China News Agency, is the official state news agency of the People's Republic of China. Xinhua ...

(commonly known as the "

New China News Agency Xinhua News Agency (English pronunciation: )J. C. Wells: Longman Pronunciation Dictionary, 3rd ed., for both British and American English, or New China News Agency, is the official state news agency of the People's Republic of China. Xinhua ...

") and he is the

Managing Director A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...

of the ''Consulting Media Agency'' (CMA)." Biography of Steve Wembi on Muck Rack "
''MackRack.Com'' (Accessed January 21, 2021).

Biography

Steve Wembi was born on 20 July 1984 in

Kindu Kindu is a city in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the capital of Maniema province. It has a population of about 200,000 and is situated on the Lualaba River at an altitude of about 500 metres, and is about 400 km west of Bukavu. Kindu is ...

, in the province of

Maniema Maniema is one of 26 provinces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Its capital is Kindu. Toponymy Henry Morton Stanley explored the area, calling it Manyema.Stanley, H.M., 1899, Through the Dark Continent, London: G. Newnes, Vol. One , ...

Zaire Zaire (, ), officially the Republic of Zaire (french: République du Zaïre, link=no, ), was a Congolese state from 1971 to 1997 in Central Africa that was previously and is now again known as the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Zaire was, ...

(now Democratic Republic of the Congo). In 1997, he underwent

military training Military education and training is a process which intends to establish and improve the capabilities of military personnel in their respective roles. Military training may be voluntary or compulsory duty. It begins with recruit training, proceed ...

in Kamalenge when the rebellion

Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Congo The Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Congo-Zaire (ADFLC; french: Alliance des Forces Démocratiques pour la Libération du Congo-Zaïre; AFDL) was a coalition of Rwandan, Ugandan, Burundian, and Congolese dissidents, disgrun ...

(AFDL or ADFLC), led by

Laurent-Désiré Kabila Laurent-Désiré Kabila () (27 November 1939 – 18 January 2001) or simply Laurent Kabila ( US: ), was a Congolese revolutionary and politician who was the third President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo from 1997 until his assassinati ...

, before returning to

secondary school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' secondary education, lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) ...

at Ibanda Institute in

Bukavu Bukavu is a city in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), lying at the extreme south-western edge of Lake Kivu, west of Cyangugu in Rwanda, and separated from it by the outlet of the Ruzizi River. It is the capital of the South Kivu pr ...

. He graduated from

high school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...

and moved to Kinshasa in 2007 to continue his university studies, the first two years at the

University of Kinshasa The University of Kinshasa (french: Université de Kinshasa), commonly known as UNIKIN, is one of the three major universities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, together with the University of Kisangani and University of Lubumbashi. Origin ...

(UNIKIN) at the

Faculty of Law A faculty is a division within a university or college comprising one subject area or a group of related subject areas, possibly also delimited by level (e.g. undergraduate). In American usage such divisions are generally referred to as colleges ...

. There he started his journalistic career as a

correspondent A correspondent or on-the-scene reporter is usually a journalist or commentator for a magazine, or an agent who contributes reports to a newspaper, or radio or television news, or another type of company, from a remote, often distant, locati ...

in Kinshasa for the New China News Agency and worked for the agency media for ten years. He has also worked for

Television,

Cable News Network CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by the M ...

(CNN) and as a reporter for

Integrated Regional Information Networks The New Humanitarian (formerly IRIN News, or Integrated Regional Information Networks News) is an independent, non-profit news agency focusing on humanitarian stories in regions that are often forgotten, under-reported, misunderstood or ignored. ...

(IRIN),

The Economist ''The Economist'' is a British weekly newspaper printed in demitab format and published digitally. It focuses on current affairs, international business, politics, technology, and culture. Based in London, the newspaper is owned by The Econo ...

Financial Times The ''Financial Times'' (''FT'') is a British daily newspaper printed in broadsheet and published digitally that focuses on business and economic current affairs. Based in London, England, the paper is owned by a Japanese holding company, Nik ...

Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation NRK, an abbreviation of the Norwegian ''Norsk Rikskringkasting AS'', generally expressed in English as the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation, is the Norwegian government-owned radio and television public broadcasting company, and the largest ...

and

The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...

."Beni, DRC: ‘They hacked him and threw him in a pigsty’"

, August 29, 2016 (Accessed January 21, 2021). In the eastern

, Wembi covered several

rebellions Rebellion, uprising, or insurrection is a refusal of obedience or order. It refers to the open resistance against the orders of an established authority. A rebellion originates from a sentiment of indignation and disapproval of a situation and ...

, including that of the

March 23 Movement The March 23 Movement (french: Mouvement du 23 mars), often abbreviated as M23 and also known as the Congolese Revolutionary Army (''Armée révolutionnaire du Congo''), is a rebel military group that is for the most part formed of ethnic Tutsi. ...

(M23) and the

National Congress for the Defense of the People The National Congress for the Defence of the People (french: Congrès national pour la défense du peuple, CNDP) is a political armed militia established by Laurent Nkunda in the Kivu region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo in December 2006 ...

(French: ''Congrès national pour la défense du peuple, CNDP'') but also, he frequented high risk areas, particular in

Kasaï Province Kasaï is one of the 21 new provinces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo created in the 2015 repartitioning. Kasaï and Kasaï-Central provinces are the result of the dismemberment of the former Kasaï-Occidental province. Kasaï was for ...

, a region where the two UN experts Zaida Catalan and Michael Sharp were killed in March 2017. That same year, he discovered more than 100

mass graves A mass grave is a grave containing multiple human corpses, which may or may not be identified prior to burial. The United Nations has defined a criminal mass grave as a burial site containing three or more victims of execution, although an exact ...

in Ngaza commune. Wembi holds a

master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is an academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice.

criminology Criminology (from Latin , "accusation", and Ancient Greek , ''-logia'', from λόγος ''logos'' meaning: "word, reason") is the study of crime and deviant behaviour. Criminology is an interdisciplinary field in both the behavioural and so ...

from Kenya Institute of Security and Criminal Justice and since 2019, he is communication advisor to the president of the

Senate of the Democratic Republic of the Congo The Senate is the upper house of the Parliament of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The senate was established in 1960, abolished in 1967 and re-established in 2003. During the transition period in the Democratic Republic of the Congo ( ...

, senator

Alexis Thambwe Mwamba Alexis Thambwe Mwamba (born May 6, 1943) is a Congolese politician who has assumed various political roles and offices since the early 1980s going from Minister of Public Works, Minister of State Portfolio, Minister of Transportation, Minister of ...

.(f
"PRÉTENDUE DÉMISSION DU PRÉSIDENT DU SÉNAT : STEVE WEMBI DÉMENT CETTE RUMEUR"
''Editeur.CD'', December 16, 2020 (Accessed January 21, 2021).

Disappearance

On October 24, 2022, Wembi went missing after a meeting at the Léon hotel in Kinshasa. The government, and in particular, the

National Intelligence Agency (Democratic Republic of the Congo) The Agence Nationale de Renseignements (ANR) is a government intelligence agency of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The role of the agency is to ensure "internal security and external security" of the state. The agency was strongly criticize ...

, were blamed for his abduction, but Patrick Muyaya, the government's spokesperson, has denied knowledge of his whereabouts, leading his family to fear he has been killed.

The Nation (Magazine) ''The Nation'' is an American liberal biweekly magazine that covers political and cultural news, opinion, and analysis. It was founded on July 6, 1865, as a successor to William Lloyd Garrison's '' The Liberator'', an abolitionist newspaper tha ...

,October 28, 2022 (Accessed November 1, 2022)

Personal life

Wembi is married to Belinda Zamundu and has six children.

References

External links

* *
LinkedIn profile

Al Jazeera profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wembi, Steve 1984 births Living people Democratic Republic of the Congo journalists People from Kindu Financial Times people The Economist people NRK people CNN people Al Jazeera people The New York Times visual journalists University of Kinshasa alumni Democratic Republic of the Congo criminologists