”What I have seen here, I will tell the world in words and in songs,” South African diva Miriam Makeba — an ambassador of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation — promised women with smallholdings on the banks of the Congo, then threw aside her cane for a spontaneous song in the sand.
No image available
/ 13 September 2007
Three mass graves have been uncovered in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) where a renegade general, government forces and rebel groups have clashed for weeks, a United Nations mission said on Thursday. ”We do not know the exact number of victims but there are several in each of the graves,” Sylvie van den Wildenberg, a spokesperson, said.
Renegade troops killed several regular army troops and wounded 30 others in five hours of heavy fighting in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s (DRC) eastern Nord-Kivu province early on Thursday, military and United Nations officials said. Soldiers serving General Laurent Nkunda attacked an army post, killed an undisclosed number and wounded 30 at Katale.
A strike by local workers in the world’s biggest United Nations peacekeeping force took hold on Friday, cutting off power and radio broadcasts from the mission headquarters in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). About 100 striking daily hire employees gathered on the second day of a protest over pay and conditions.
Only a thin barbed wire fence protects Africa’s first nuclear reactor, once Kinshasa’s pride that today sits dormant on an eroding hill in a country wracked by decades of misrule and conflict. Last month international experts again voiced concern about security at the Kinshasa Regional Centre for Nuclear Studies.
Clashes in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) capital last week left between 200 and 500 dead, the German ambassador said on Tuesday as European Union envoys expressed concern at the force used by government troops against political opponents. The figure came from hospital sources, aid groups and diplomats, German envoy Karl-Albrecht Wokalek said.
No image available
/ 4 December 2006
The swearing in on Wednesday of Joseph Kabila as the Democratic Republic of Congo’s (DRC) first freely elected leader may be a turning point not only for this war-ravaged nation of 60-million but for all of Central Africa. If the 35-year-old president-elect has the will and the skill to fulfil his campaign pledge it could help bring peace to a devastated region.
No image available
/ 28 November 2006
Joseph Kabila was officially declared the winner on Monday of the first free elections in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in 41 years after the Supreme Court ruled out a legal challenge by the losing candidate. Kabila was ”elected by absolute majority president of the Democratic Republic of Congo”, Supreme Court chief Benoit Iwamba said.
No image available
/ 27 November 2006
Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and United Nations security forces were out in strength on Monday in a tense Kinshasa ahead of a Supreme Court ruling on an electoral challenge by losing presidential candidate Jean-Pierre Bemba. Dozens of riot police were on guard around the Foreign Ministry, where the court has worked since its building was partly burned during a violent protest.
No image available
/ 9 November 2006
Democratic Republic of Congo presidential candidate Jean-Pierre Bemba says there have been irregularities in the publication of partial results from the election. Results from districts published by authorities since the October 29 election are different from results ”in our possession”, said a spokesperson for Bemba’s party.