Urgent diplomatic interventions are needed as the second largest city in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo falls to M23
The March 23 Movement is filling administrative positions in Goma
and Rwanda may do the same in Kivu
The well-heeled flock to a marble-clad hotel in a city renowned as a smuggling hub for gold.
No image available
/ 6 September 2007
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.
No image available
/ 6 September 2007
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.
Two Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) soldiers went on trial before a military court hours after being arrested for the murder of a prominent radio journalist, an official said on Friday. A local media rights group, Journalists in Danger, condemned the summary trial, saying that no serious inquiry had been made.
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.
More than 30 civilians were burned alive when an armed gang herded them into their huts in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and set them on fire, the United Nations mission in the DRC said on Monday.
In a haze of dust, wearing ear mufflers against the clang of machines, Lobano Kalimbiro smashes red rocks rich in tin ore with a metal hammer, working up a sweat in a trade that fuelled central Africa’s biggest war and may spawn another.
No image available
/ 12 December 2004
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
No image available
/ 8 December 2004
Hutu militias have kidnapped at least 15 people in remote villages in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo in the past four days, demanding ransoms in a growing wave of militia violence, a United Nations spokesperson said on Wednesday.
UN finds Rwandan troops in DRC
No image available
/ 30 November 2004
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.
No image available
/ 26 November 2004
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.
No image available
/ 9 November 2004
Three thousand troops of the Democratic Republic of Congo’s (DRC) regular army have deployed in the country’s eastern Walungu area to stabilise a region where Rwandan rebels are active, the army said on Tuesday. Last week, the army announced it will deploy soldiers with the backing of the United Nations mission in the DRC.
No image available
/ 17 September 2004
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.
No image available
/ 15 September 2004
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.
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.
The sound of artillery and light weapons fire rang out at midday on Tuesday in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) town of Bukavu, which has been occupied since last week by dissident army troops. The shooting took place in the southwestern Panzi district, spreading panic among residents.
Crisis talks in the DRC
Two South African peacekeepers serving with the United Nations mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) were killed on Sunday and nine others wounded during an attack by unidentified armed men near the eastern city of Goma, the mission said.
United Nations peacekeepers took control of the strategic Congolese city of Bukavu on Friday as renegade soldiers withdrew and President Joseph Kabila attempted to calm the nation after the largest and most violent protests since he took office. A UN commander in Bukavu confirmed the pullout had begun on Thursday night.
Dissident troops gather in DRC
Kinshasa paralysed by lack of transport
Dissident troops who this week overran the east Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) town of Bukavu were gathering in and around the town Friday, a day after their leader promised to pull them out entirely. The soldiers were assembling at strategic points to defend the town they captured on Wednesday, their commander said.
Kinshasa paralysed by lack of transport
UN troops kill two in DRC riots
Renegade commanders in the Democratic Republic of Congo pledged on Thursday to withdraw their troops from a strategic city and allow United Nations peacekeepers to take control, potentially defusing a crisis that threatened to plunge the Central African country back into civil war.
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.
The peace process in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) suffered a major blow on Wednesday when renegade soldiers captured a provincial capital in the volatile east of the country. During the DRC’s 1998 to 2003 civil war the town, Bukavu, was a stronghold of the Congolese Rally for Democracy.
Heavy fighting in Bukavu
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.
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.
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.
No image available
/ 6 December 2003
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.
No image available
/ 13 November 2003
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.
It was while she was on her way to collect the body of her sister-in-law last year that Christine was raped. She resisted, so her attacker — a member of the main rebel group, she believes — shot her twice in the vagina.
When Francois Amani goes fishing, he always takes a radio — his sole source of companionship during long nights spent earning a living on the windy waters of Lake Kivu.