News, debate shows, entertainment… For 25 years, Radio Ndeke Luka (RNL) has been broadcasting its programs throughout the Central African Republic.
Thanks to its strong social presence within communities, the radio also fulfills a public service function that goes beyond that of a general news broadcaster. “Every day, people come to our offices for different reasons: some have lost their ID documents or other valuable belongings and want to make an announcement on the radio to find them,” explains Brice Landry Ndangui, Editor-in-Chief at Radio Ndeke Luka.
Above all, RNL is widely recognized by the population as a platform for reporting missing children. “It’s a widespread phenomenon. When children don’t come home from school, after an hour or two, the parents’ first reflex is always to alert the radio.” In August 2025 alone, 25 missing-child notices were filed with the station. “This role of helping locate children lost in the city is quite unique to RNL, largely because the level of trust in our radio is very high,” he adds.
And the system works: every child reported missing in August was reunited with their family.
“The parents’ first reflex is always to alert the radio”
Brice Landry Ndangui
When a report is filed, the radio broadcasts an announcement containing information about the child’s profile so that residents can identify them and bring them either to the station or to the police, or so that the parents can recognize them. “In some cases, it’s also the police who call us to ask that we issue a notice to alert the parents of a child who has been brought to the station,” the Editor-in-Chief explains.
One story particularly moved him: “One day, a 12-year-old girl was brought to the radio by a woman who had taken her in while she tried to locate her family,” he recounts. “The young girl came from a town across from Bangui and had travelled to the capital to look for her mother, whom she hadn’t seen in four years. At the radio, we broadcast her story and shared as many details as possible, such as her father’s name and her mother’s nationality. One of her aunts recognized the father’s name and informed the girl’s mother. The reunion was incredibly emotional: the mother, in tears, thanked us for a long time. She had lost all hope. Thanks to the radio, she found her daughter.”
To learn more about Radio Ndeke Luka’s many activities, discover the testimony of host Ursula Merveille Mevala :