OUR TEAM
Emmanuel UMPULA NKUMBA
Attorney Umpula Nkumba Emmanuel is Executive Director of African Natural Resources Watch (AFREWATCH). Founder of the Congo River School and CEO of MUN Consulting Law Firm. He is an expert on business, human rights and extractive sector governance in the DRC and Africa. One of the African strong voices on natural resources.
Mr. Umpula is a board member of Rights and Accountability In Development (RAID),
Resource Matters and African Coalition for Corporate Accountability (ACCA). Previously, he was executive director of Action Against Impunity for Human Rights, deputy coordinator of the Platform of Civil Society Organizations Working in the Katanga Mining Sector (POM) and coordinator of advocacy activities for the Jimmy Carter Foundation (The Carter Center).
He is one of the civil society experts in the DRC who participated and contributed
effectively to the revision of the Congolese mining code and regulations. He has helped several local communities lodge complaints against multinational companies using the OECD guidelines, and against the Congolese state before the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights. Examples of complaint cases in which he has been involved include the Kilwe massacres against the Australian-Canadian company Anvil Mining, the demolition of Kawama village against the mining company Malta Forrest International, and Heineken against its former workers, etc. He also took part in the revision of the OECD Guidelines in 2011.
In the field of human rights and the environment, he is the author or co-author of several reports and articles available on the Internet.
Me. Dieudonné BEEN MASUDI K.
A political scientist and lawyer, Mr. Dieudonné BEEN MASUDI K. is a lawyer at the Courts of Appeal of Haut-Katanga (2004) and Lualaba (2019) and an assistant (doctoral student in environmental law) at the Faculty of Law of the University of Lubumbashi in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
Dieudonné BEEN MASUDI is a researcher in international human rights law, environmental law, labor law, and mining law. He also has extensive experience in administrative operations and human rights investigations, having served for 15 years as Executive Director of the Center for Human Rights and Humanitarian Law (CDH), 4 years as Chief of Staff to the Vice-President of the Provincial Assembly of Katanga, and 2 years as Senior Advisor to the National Minister of Humanitarian Affairs of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). He was also part of the team of human rights defenders who submitted cases to the office of ICC Prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo on crimes against humanity committed by the Mai-Mai in North Katanga between 2001 and 2003.
He also collaborated with the NGO African Resources Watch (AFREWATCH) not only in developing a bill requiring private and public companies in the mining sector to respect human rights in the conduct of their activities, but also in developing the Compendium of National, Regional, and International Best Practices on Combating Child Labor in Artisanal Mines and on Artisanal Mining Sites in the Haut-Katanga and Lualaba Provinces in the South of the DRC. Furthermore, as a consultant for AFREWATCH, Dieudonné BEEN MASUDI has trained community leaders living near extractive companies on the ABCs of human rights and techniques for documenting human rights violations, and has also conducted a study on the environmental impacts of industrial mining activities in the provinces of Lualaba and Haut-Katanga. Since 2020, he has collaborated with AFREWATCH on its energy transition program.
In terms of legal assistance and representation, Dieudonné BEEN MASUDI has been part of the legal teams advocating on behalf of victims of cases involving the demolitions and evictions of communities living near Luishishi in Kawama by the mining company CMSK, a joint venture between GECAMINES and EGMF.
Me. Grace TSHOMA NUMBE
Grace Tshoma Numbe, passionate about youth, lives by the motto: "Nourish Minds; Cultivate Talents."
Born in Lubumbashi on January 13, 1986, and holding a Master's degree in International Human Rights Law from the University of Pretoria in South Africa, she is Head of Research at the Faculty of Law of the University of Lubumbashi, where she is pursuing her doctorate. She also teaches at the Faculty of Law of the University of Lubumbashi, the School of Criminology, the Protestant University, and Don Bosco University of Lubumbashi.
One year after obtaining her law degree from the University of Lubumbashi, she began her career as a lawyer in 2009 at the Kinshasa Matete Bar, before transferring to the Haut-Katanga Bar.
Head of Grace Tshoma Numbe & Partner since 2010, Grace Tshoma Numbe specializes in business and family mining law.
She has experience in the following areas:
Labor law
Local community rights
Environmental law
Human rights law
Business and human rights
Extractive industry governance
Me. Toussaint NGOIE
Born in Lubumbashi on November 1, 1979, Maître Toussaint NGOIE KABOBA holds a bachelor's degree in Economic and Social Law from the Faculty of Law of the University of Lubumbashi, for the 2004-2005 academic year.
After his university studies, he completed professional internships in several private companies and public institutions and also benefited from several human rights training courses organized by the NGO Action Against Impunity for Human Rights (ACIDH), as well as other training courses in OHADA law.
Since August 24, 2017, he has been registered with the Bar Association of the Haut-Katanga Court of Appeal, where he practices law. He is a member of the law firm Jules Tabu Kakudji Alimasi & Associates, located in Lubumbashi, at 10 Avenue Kimbangu.
Me. Toussaint Ngoie specializes in civil, family, and labor law.
Boniface UMPULA
Mr. Boniface Umpula, a partner at MUN CONSULTING LAW FIRM SAS, is a lawyer specializing in business law (mining and hydrocarbons), human rights, and finance.
Mr. Boniface Umpula, Av., holds a bachelor's degree in economic and social law from the University of Lubumbashi, a master's degree in mining governance from the Faculty of Social Sciences and Management at the Catholic University of Central Africa in Yaoundé, and several other diplomas and training certificates in human rights, transparency, and governance of extractive industries (mining, gas, and oil), obtained from several other national and international institutions.
Mr. Boniface has over 15 years of experience working with national and international development institutions working in the fields of mining, finance, human rights, and environmental law.
He has also led projects, campaigns, meetings, forums and studies on issues of governance of mineral resources in Africa and the DRC and carried out numerous studies on the impact of the exploitation of natural resources on human rights, the environment and on budgets in the DRC, Sierra Leone and many other countries.
