No image available
/ 18 February 2008

DRC releases Zambian fishermen

The Zambian government announced on Monday that 30 fishermen arrested by authorities from the neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) on cross-border Lake Mweru had been released, but fishermen nabbed in earlier raids were reportedly still being held.

No image available
/ 5 December 2007

Rice arrives in Ethiopia for crisis talks

United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrived in Ethiopia on Wednesday for talks with African leaders aimed at tackling long-running conflicts in the volatile Great Lakes region, Somalia and Sudan. On only her second trip in two years to sub-Saharan Africa, Rice said she wanted to move international efforts forward to resolve those conflicts.

No image available
/ 15 October 2007

DRC rebels reject government ultimatum

The volatile east of the Democratic Republic of Congo braced for renewed fighting on Sunday after rebels refused to give up arms despite a government ultimatum to disarm or face a fresh offensive. The Congolese government has given forces under renegade Tutsi general Laurent Nkunda until Monday to disarm.

No image available
/ 27 September 2007

DRC hopes hi-tech ID cards will tame unruly army

Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) hopes a new biometric identity card (ID) scheme backed by the European Union can help overhaul its undisciplined armed forces, branded by campaigners as the central African state’s worst rights abuser. After decades as a tool of repression under former leader Mobutu Sese Seko and a devastating 1998 to 2003 war, DRC’s army is bloated, unmanageable and corrupt.

No image available
/ 18 September 2007

Rwanda warns Hutu rebels in the DRC

Rwanda has made a thinly veiled threat to send its troops back into eastern Democratic Republic of Congo after accusing the government in Kinshasa of collaborating with genocidal Hutu extremists on its border. The Rwandan government said a Congolese army assault against a renegade Tutsi general, Laurent Nkunda, is helping to strengthen Hutu rebels.