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/ 6 September 2007

UN: DRC army, rebel general agree ceasefire

The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) army and a renegade general have agreed to a United Nations-brokered ceasefire to halt more than a week of clashes in the east, the UN mission in DRC (Monuc) said on Thursday. ”A ceasefire has been facilitated by Monuc between [General Laurent] Nkunda and the government troops,” said Sylvie Van Den Wildenberg.

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/ 6 September 2007

DRC rebel calls for truce as fighting worsens

A dissident Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) general called for African mediation to broker a ceasefire in eastern DRC as fighting between his forces and government troops neared the provincial capital on Thursday. New clashes broke out before dawn around Karuba, a village about 30km west of Goma, the capital of troubled North Kivu province.

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/ 13 July 2005

Witness recounts horror of massacre in the DRC

A witness on Tuesday gave a gruesome account of how a massacre in the Democratic Republic of Congo took place last weekend, accusing the perpetrators of locking up innocent people and then burning them. The headmaster of Ntulumamba’s primary school, who only gave his name as Bisimwa, managed to flee when the disaster unfolded and walked 70km to find help.

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/ 12 December 2004

Rival DRC army factions clash

Rival factions in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s (DRC) post-war army fought gunbattles in the vast nation’s restive east on Saturday, killing several people, a top military official said. ”There have been several deaths, but the number has not yet been established,” army Colonel Etienne Bindu said

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/ 30 November 2004

DRC calls for tougher moves on rebels

A top army official in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) called on Tuesday for ”more dynamic” measures to disarm rebels and militias in the region, saying he was unimpressed by the current campaign. The general was speaking on the same day that Rwandan President Paul Kagame hinted that Rwandan troops were back in eastern DRC to hunt down and tackle Hutu extremists.

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/ 26 November 2004

DRC soldier killed by Rwandan rebels

A Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) soldier has been killed in the east of the vast central African country in an attack by Rwandan rebels, a DRC army officer told reporters on Friday. The Democratic attack was near Walungu, around 80km southwest of Bukavu, according too a DRC offiver, and the soldier was killed when rebels cut off his arm.

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/ 17 September 2004

DRC clashes displace 15 000

Pro-government Mayi-Mayi militia battled former rebels for control of an east Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) town in a week of artillery and gun battles that sent the town’s 15 000 people fleeing, officials and residents said on Friday. United Nations radio reported at least 15 ex-rebels killed in the clashes at Walikale.

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/ 15 September 2004

DRC town recaptured from dissident general

The army of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has recaptured the town of Minova in the eastern province of Sud Kivu from a dissident general, a military spokesperson said on Tuesday. ”The soldiers of General Laurent Nkunda retreated northwards to Goma and Masisi” in neighbouring Nord Kivu province, said army spokesperson Lieutenant Kasanda wa Kasanda.

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/ 9 June 2004

DRC forces take back Bukavu

Government forces in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) took back the eastern provincial capital of Bukavu without a fight on Wednesday, to the jubilation of residents, a week after the regular army was chased out by renegade troops. Residents of Bukavu danced in the streets, banging drums and cooking pots.

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/ 3 June 2004

Kabila accuses Rwanda of backing rebels

President Joseph Kabila accused neighbouring Rwanda of being behind the renegade soldiers who on Wednesday captured a provincial capital in the volatile east of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Bukavu, the capital of Sud-Kivu province, fell to renegade troops led by two generals from the Congolese Rally for Democracy (RCD), a former Rwandan-backed rebel group that is now represented in the transitional government in Kinshasa under the terms of a 2003 peace deal.

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/ 31 May 2004

Tension grips the DRC

Armed groups drawn from opposite sides of the Democratic Republic of Congo’s (DRC) supposedly resolved war squared off in the east of the country on Monday, ratcheting up tension to the point where a government delegation was forced to seek United Nations protection.

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/ 28 May 2004

More sporadic shooting in eastern DRC

Sporadic shooting resumed on Friday morning in the east Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) town of Bukavu, where at least 10 people were killed over the previous two days in clashes between rival army units. The gunfire and mortar explosions were less frequent on Friday than earlier in the week, according to an AFP journalist there.

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/ 23 April 2004

Child soldiers in DRC recruited for cash

Militias in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) continue to recruit hundreds of child soldiers — apparently in an effort to collect cash — in defiance of a national peace treaty, a United Nations disarmament programme and international law, a Congolese human rights group said on Friday.

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/ 6 December 2003

Cheap drugs give hope to Aids patients in war zone

Jeanne Tabaro is one of the chosen ones. She has Aids, she is poor, she lives in Africa, which is to say she should soon die. But her smile indicates a different fate: Jeanne expects to live. The 41-year-old mother of four recently started receiving free treatment with anti-Aids drugs which could keep her alive and healthy for decades, an option denied to all but a handful of the 30-million Africans with HIV.

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/ 13 November 2003

Where rape is a weapon

After raping teenaged Marie, three uniformed soldiers left her in a forest in Democratic Republic of Congo’s South Kivu province, where sexual violence is widespread. ”With the war, it was impossible to get to a hospital,” recalled the 17-year-old, between sobs brought on by the memory.