In 2024, we exposed how digital IDs in Africa failed to deliver promised democratic and development boost, while making fortunes for tech vendors. Our investigation in Congo on the deal with French technology company Idemia, was widely covered by the Congolese press and picked up by news influencers. Congo’s anti-corruption watchdog reacted publicly (Parts 1, 2, 3) and international scholar-experts on biometrics endorsed and circulated the investigation. The deal’s mastermind, Samba Bathily, was not pleased, going so far as to give a long interview claiming we’d coordinated a campaign against him. Just three days after the publication of our story into the spiralling costs of a biometric mega-deal rife with corruption in the DRC, the contract was cancelled.