Government soldiers looted homes, beat people and fired gunshots into the air on Sunday in the western Democratic Republic of Congo, a United Nations spokesperson said. The looting spree in Mbandaka was sparked after a soldier was found slain and his body mutilated early on Sunday morning, said UN spokesperson Kemal Saiki.
The teenage girl with flowers in her hair crossed her tiny hands to keep them from trembling, and described how she was raped by 10 militiamen. Ombeni (18) was then kept as a concubine for nine months in the forests of eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. When she became pregnant, the militia removed her baby with a machete and left her alone to die on the forest floor.
The legislature officially ratified the Democratic Republic of Congo’s (DRC) new Constitution on Monday, moving the nation a step closer to elections and reconciliation after nearly four decades of dictatorship and war. Under the new Constitution, presidential and parliamentary elections must now be held by June next year.
Amid scattered violence, Togolese voted to elect a new president they hope will bring democracy after decades of tyranny and restore order following months of turmoil caused by the death of Africa’s longest-serving ruler. Leading candidate Faure Gnassingbe reiterated his vows to restore security, unite the divided country and install a government of national unity if elected.
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/ 14 January 2005
The African Union wants African countries to send troops to the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo to forcefully disarm rebel factions believed to be responsible for the 1994 genocide in neighbouring Rwanda. Spokesperson Desmond Orjiako said he would ask African nations to contribute soldiers to disarm an estimated 10Â 000 former Rwandan soldiers and Hutu Interahamwe militia.
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/ 13 December 2004
As the first sub-Saharan African nation to shake free of colonial rule, Ghana helped chart the region’s familiar downward path: post-independence euphoria followed by despotic leaders, corruption, economic decline — and often war. But Ghana has now extended its record of consecutive democratic elections to four.
The jagged slopes of Mount Kenya, where 12 members of one American family died in a plane crash this week, have long drawn climbers looking for a challenge and religious believers who say their god dwells there.
Maasai women dressed in traditional beads waited patiently at an office in this dusty, one-street Kenyan town to register their charges against British soldiers they are accusing of rape.