The Catholic Church has beatified Floribert Bwana Chui Bin Kositi, the 26-year-old customs official who was murdered in July 2007, just three months into his new job as a customs officer. He was abducted and brutally murdered in Goma, eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. His battered body was discovered two days later near a university […]
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The Catholic Church has beatified Floribert Bwana Chui Bin Kositi, the 26-year-old customs official who was murdered in July 2007, just three months into his new job as a customs officer. He was abducted and brutally murdered in Goma, eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. His battered body was discovered two days later near a university campus. His crime was refusing to accept a bribe to allow the entry of spoiled rice that posed a serious public health risk.
Nearly two decades later, the devout Catholic is being honoured by the Church. In June, he was beatified in Rome, a major step toward sainthood, after the Vatican declared him a martyr, recognising his death as a result of his unwavering commitment to Christian values in the face of corruption.
Kositi had been offered increasing sums of money to approve the rice shipment, starting with $1,000, then $2,000, and more, but he stood firm. According to the Sant’Egidio community, of which he was a member, Kositi faced pressure not only from smugglers but also from public officials. He refused to yield.
Fr Francesco Tedeschi, the Italian priest leading the campaign for his canonisation, described his death as a “mafia-style warning” to others in Goma, a city long plagued by armed groups and lawlessness. Yet, rather than instill fear, Kositi’s death has become a symbol of integrity and resistance.
Born in Goma in 1981, Kositi was the eldest of three children and eight half-siblings. His mother was a border police officer, and his father worked in a bank. Described as intelligent, eloquent, and compassionate, Kositi studied law and became actively involved in youth ministry after attending a student peace conference in Rwanda in 2001. Inspired by Sant’Egidio’s message of peace and service, he helped launch a community chapter in Goma, focusing on supporting street children.
His commitment to justice extended into his professional life. After being assigned to a post on the Rwanda–Congo border in April 2007, he intercepted a shipment of roughly five tonnes of spoiled rice. Concerned about the public health risks, he consulted a nun working as a doctor in Goma to confirm the danger and ordered the rice destroyed.
That decision made him a target.
“No one has ever been arrested for his killing,” said Fr. Tedeschi. “But his death failed to silence the message he lived: love, justice, and moral courage.”
Kositi’s legacy lives on. The School of Peace he helped establish in Goma has since become an educational institution bearing his name. Pope Francis cited him during a visit to DR Congo in 2023, calling on young people to emulate his honesty and courage. His successor, Pope Leo XIV, who presided over the beatification, described Kositi as proof that Africa’s youth can lead the way to peace.
Now bearing the title “Blessed Floribert,” only one confirmed miracle stands between him and sainthood, a fitting end for a young man who chose integrity over impunity in a region where doing so often means death.
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