The 'Decolonial' State-Backed NGOs Behind the Cofnas Cancellation
Cofnas is the target of a months-long campaign "encouraged" by Rector De Sutter
On August 20th, the University of Ghent suspended Nathan Cofnas. According to Cofnas himself, De Sutter has now allowed him to stay.2 “The Ambassador responded with great support which helped to bring about a just outcome,” Cofnas says, along with a picture of himself with U.S. Ambassador to Belgium Bill White.
This reversal follows a months-long campaign against Cofnas with the “explicit encouragement” of Rector Petra De Sutter, documents uncovered by Effort show. This campaign was coordinated by activists in a network of ‘decolonial’ NGOs funded by the governments of Belgium and the Belgian region of Flanders.
Government Funding of anti-Cofnas NGOs1
In the letter sent to Cofnas, De Sutter claims that she suspended Cofnas due to “complaints, reports, and concerning signals from across the wider university community” Effort uncovered a document circulated by anti-Cofnas activists, who stated that De Sutter “explicitly encouraged” them to abuse the University of Ghent’s complaint mechanisms with mass-produced letters.
This document, titled “HOW-TO-REPORT-ENG”3, failed to find factual errors or academic misconduct accusations in Cofnas’ or de Vries’ academic work. Instead, they describe the authors’ own intolerance, mental illness, and tendency to cause disruption.
De Sutter continues in her letter to Cofnas: “Considering the volume and nature of the complaints, reports and expressions of concern received, the University cannot reasonably exclude the risk that your continued physical presence in the workplace would lead to confrontations, further disruption of the University’s activities, or a deterioration of the working and learning environment.”
The “volume and nature of the complaints, reports and expressions of concern received” are those she “explicitly encouraged” according to the authors of the report campaign. The “confrontations, further disruption of the University’s activities, or a deterioration of the working and learning environment” are those threatened by the authors, not by Cofnas himself.
The media attacks on Cofnas are organized by two NGOs — Kif Kif and DeWereldMorgen — entirely funded1 by the governments of Belgium and the Flanders. Both are highly involved in campaigning for ‘decolonial’ ideology. In 2020, DeWereldMorgen published the “DECOLONIZE UGENT”4 along with multiple UGent professors, which declares: “The decolonization of education is still a long time coming. Higher education remains trapped in colonial, Eurocentric frameworks of thought that hinder high-quality educational practices and leave many students dissatisfied.”
While decolonial ideology became known for anti-Semitism following its leaders celebrating the October 7th terrorist attack5, the movement supports a broader range of racially discriminatory policies against those they consider ‘white’ or ‘colonizers’. Kif Kif, DeWereldMorgen, and three other Kif Kif official partner organizations have a years-long history of coordination with authors of report Cofnas campaign.7
De Sutter, the Rector who suspended Cofnas, fabricated quotes using AI in her 2025 opening speech. Jason Arday was a proven plagiarist6, while De Sutter and her co-conspirators failed to identify any academic errors in Cofnas’ work. The campaign she encouraged mass-produces letters claiming that Cofnas — a Jew — is “racist”, while organizing around a ‘decolonial’ movement which celebrates ethnic violence against Jews.
In every way possible, the organized campaign against Cofnas is the persecution of the innocent by the guilty.
Footnotes
1 Award-level data underlying the chart. RoSa’s two GEKO agreements are Brussels-Capital Region wage-cost subsidies administered and paid by Actiris; the annual report does not identify the issuers of the remaining €1,397.99 in personnel recoveries and subsidies. Brussels-Capital Region description of Actiris.
| SCVW operating schedule, 2024 | Kif Kif vzw | €301,346.99 | Flanders |
| VIA support, 2024 | Kif Kif vzw | €26,673.74 | Flanders |
| Structural anti-racism operating grant | Kif Kif vzw | €164,015.00 | Belgium |
| SCVW operating subsidy, 2024 | GetBasic vzw / DeWereldMorgen | €238,481.90 | Flanders |
| VIA support, 2024 | GetBasic vzw / DeWereldMorgen | €26,868.43 | Flanders |
| GKV structural subsidy income | Rol en Samenleving vzw / RoSa | €640,244.00 | Flanders |
| Documentation-centre structural support | Rol en Samenleving vzw / RoSa | €90,000.00 | Belgium |
| GEKO agreement AA3834 | Rol en Samenleving vzw / RoSa | €48,455.15 | Brussels / Actiris |
| GEKO agreement BR980164 | Rol en Samenleving vzw / RoSa | €64,154.89 | Brussels / Actiris |
| Social Maribel | Rol en Samenleving vzw / RoSa | €21,150.00 | Belgium |
| VIA middelen | Rol en Samenleving vzw / RoSa | €10,675.65 | Flanders |
| Personnel recovery (“recup BV”) | Rol en Samenleving vzw / RoSa | €1,317.99 | Other |
| Other personnel subsidy | Rol en Samenleving vzw / RoSa | €80.00 | Other |
| Earned and associative revenue | Rol en Samenleving vzw / RoSa | €13,678.66 | Earned |
| Gifts | Rol en Samenleving vzw / RoSa | €877.21 | Other |
| Financial income | Rol en Samenleving vzw / RoSa | €87.74 | Other |
| SCVW operating subsidy, 2025 | Leren Ageren, Bewegen en Organiseren vzw / LABO | €212,659.71 | Flanders |
| VIA support, 2025 | Leren Ageren, Bewegen en Organiseren vzw / LABO | €12,306.81 | Flanders |
| Werf Duurzame Wijk | Leren Ageren, Bewegen en Organiseren vzw / LABO | €58,500.00 | City of Ghent |
| Project subsidy | Leren Ageren, Bewegen en Organiseren vzw / LABO | €2,400.00 | City of Ghent |
| SCVW operating subsidy, 2024 | Hand in Hand tegen Racisme vzw | €245,295.82 | Flanders |
| VIA support, 2024 | Hand in Hand tegen Racisme vzw | €19,791.94 | Flanders |
| SCVW project subsidy, 2024 | Hand in Hand tegen Racisme vzw | €183,600.00 | Flanders |
| Federal structural anti-racism grant | Hand in Hand tegen Racisme vzw | €111,000.00 | Belgium |
2 An email directed to Cofnas posted on X claims that he is restricted from teaching and must fully work remote. ↩
3 ‘Eng’ is typically short for ‘Engineering’. ↩
4 Translated from Dutch by GPT5.6 Sol Ultra. ↩
5 https://www.hudson.org/politics-government/third-worldist-logic-zineb-riboua
6 https://ncofnas.com/p/dei-fraud-and-cover-up-at-cambridge
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/08/opinion/cambridge-plagiarism-arday-higher-education.html
7https://www.kifkif.be/over-kif-kif/raad-van-bestuur
https://www.kifkif.be/over-kif-kif/medewerkers
https://www.dewereldmorgen.be/over-ons/ons-team
https://rosavzw.be/nl/over-rosa/team-rosa
https://handinhandtegenracisme.be/eenvoudige-pagina/wie-zijn-we
https://leiterreports.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/HOW-TO-REPORT-ENG.pdf
| Name | Affiliation | Role |
|---|---|---|
| Sigrid Sterckx | UGent | Report Cofnas Organizer |
| Clemence Van Ginneken | UGent | Report Cofnas Organizer |
| Dorian Accoe | UGent | Report Cofnas Organizer |
| Stef Bracke | UGent | Report Cofnas Organizer |
| Veerle Provoost | UGent | Report Cofnas Organizer |
| Emilie Vanmeerhaeghe | UGent | Report Cofnas Organizer |
| Jana De Kockere | UGent | Report Cofnas Organizer |
| Rachid Baitar | Kif Kif | Anti-Cofnas Media NGO Leader |
| Rania Karoui | Kif Kif | Anti-Cofnas Media NGO Leader |
| Nadia El Allaoui | Kif Kif | Anti-Cofnas Media NGO Leader |
| Fran C. Bracho | Kif Kif | Anti-Cofnas Media NGO Leader |
| Sultan Erdogan | Kif Kif | Anti-Cofnas Media NGO Leader |
| Karim Ettourki | Kif Kif | Anti-Cofnas Media NGO Leader |
| Joren Janssens | Kif Kif | Anti-Cofnas Media NGO Leader |
| Marta Łotoczuk | Kif Kif | Anti-Cofnas Media NGO Leader |
| Tuly Salumu | Kif Kif | Anti-Cofnas Media NGO Leader |
| Ahmet Savran | Kif Kif | Anti-Cofnas Media NGO Leader |
| Simon Truwant | Kif Kif | Anti-Cofnas Media NGO Leader |
| Nina Henkens | Kif Kif | Anti-Cofnas Media NGO Leader |
| Helenka Spanjer | DeWereldMorgen / GetBasic | Anti-Cofnas Media NGO Leader |
| Ismay van der Klei | DeWereldMorgen / GetBasic | Anti-Cofnas Media NGO Leader |
| Youna Mulock Houwer | DeWereldMorgen / GetBasic | Anti-Cofnas Media NGO Leader |
| Seppe De Meulder | DeWereldMorgen / GetBasic | Anti-Cofnas Media NGO Leader |
| Bieke Purnelle | RoSa vzw | Broader Network |
| Jens van Lathem | LABO vzw | Broader Network |
| Lies Hens | LABO vzw | Broader Network |
| Roeland Keersmaekers | LABO vzw | Broader Network |
| Ewoud Vandepitte | LABO vzw | Broader Network |
| Koen Bogaert | LABO vzw | Broader Network |
| Bart Boone | Hand in Hand tegen Racisme | Broader Network |
| Saloua El Boustani | Hand in Hand tegen Racisme | Broader Network |
| Cédric Fosse | Hand in Hand tegen Racisme | Broader Network |
| Saïda Isbai | Hand in Hand tegen Racisme | Broader Network |
| Lieven Miguel Kandolo | Hand in Hand tegen Racisme | Broader Network |
| Ludo Segers | Hand in Hand tegen Racisme | Broader Network |
| Jihad Van Puymbroeck | Hand in Hand tegen Racisme | Broader Network |
| Hanne Van Regemortel | Hand in Hand tegen Racisme | Broader Network |
| Marius Dekeyser | Hand in Hand tegen Racisme | Broader Network |