(5 Sep 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Bukavu, Democratic Republic of Congo – 27 August 2025
1. Mid of Alain Mukumiro walking in the market to get items to repair refrigerators he’s working on
2. SOUNDBITE (Swahili) Alain Mukumiro, refrigerator repairman:
++STARTS ON SHOT 1, PARTIALLY OVERLAID BY SHOT 3++
“I came to buy the tools I will use now to repair, filters and rods, but they refused my money on the pretext that it is damaged. All my money has numbers, but they refuse it because it has been glued (back together). And especially these perforated bills that they have punched holes in and then patched back together. They refused all these bills. And yet I just exchanged them with money changers on the road.”
3. Close of the money
4. Money changer shows the bills he has that have been perforated by the bank and slated for destruction
5. Innocent Ruboneka, a money changer, shows off the invalidated bills UPSOUND (Swahili): “Here is tundu sita (means “six holes”, used to refer to the damaged bills): one, two, three, four, five and six. These are the perforated bills.”
6. Ruboneka stands near his stall
7. SOUNDBITE (Swahili) Innocent Ruboneka, money changer:
++STARTS ON SHOT 6, PARTIALLY OVERLAID BY SHOT 8++
“We take this money in exchange for smaller amounts. These perforated bills, for 20,000 Congolese francs, we give the owner 5,000. And 5,000 Congolese francs for 500."
8. Money changer shows the money with holes in it
9. Money changers sit on the sidewalk in Bukavu
STORYLINE:
In the rebel-controlled city of Bukavu in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Alain Mukumiro argues in a small wooden hut with a shopkeeper who refuses to take his money.
“All my money has numbers, but they refuse it because it has been glued (back together),” the 36 year-old fridge technician told The Associated Press.
“Yet I just exchanged them with money changers on the road,” he added.
Innocent Ruboneka, a money changer said they take the damaged money in exchange for smaller amounts.
"These perforated bills, for 20,000 Congolese francs ($7), we give the owner 5,000 ($1.75). And 5,000 Congolese francs ($1.75) for 500 ($0.17)," Ruboneka said.
Damaged banknotes, sometimes taped or glued together, have flooded Bukavu since the M23 rebel group captured the major city in February in an escalation of the decades-long conflict between Congo and armed groups.
The latest fighting has killed some 3,000 people and worsened what was already one of the world’s largest humanitarian crises, with around 7 million people displaced.
Shortly before the Rwanda-backed rebels took over Bukavu, Congolese authorities had closed the city’s banks, leading to a shortage of banknotes.
Banks have remained closed ever since, preventing the city’s residents from accessing cash and the banking authorities from regulating the money supply.
In recent months, many residents have started using old, torn and patched-up banknotes to compensate for the lack of regular ones.
It is unclear how the damaged banknotes, which were meant to be destroyed by the banks, have found their way onto the markets.
Some residents suspect they were stolen from the banks during M23’s takeover of the city.
The circulation of both damaged and regular banknotes led to confusion and tension between buyers and sellers in Bukavu.
Mukumiro said some sellers accept them while others don’t.
The father of three children said he and his family often have to go to sleep without food, as many sellers do not accept the damaged banknotes, leaving him without payment methods.
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