Kinshasa

The government of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) protested on Monday at the ”unjustified presence” of Rwandan troops on DRC soil in the northeast and warned that it could undermine diplomatic relations. The United Nations mission in the DRC on Saturday confirmed that Rwandan soldiers were deployed in the region.

The United Nations mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) said on Saturday that Rwandan troops have ”illegally” crossed the border into the vast former Zaire. It called the presence of Rwandan or any other foreign military group in the DRC ”illegal”.

Forty-three people drowned last week and 10 more were missing after an overloaded boat sank in Lake Tanganyika in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), a United Nations spokesperson said on Friday. The boat was travelling between the towns of Tembwe and Kalemie on the lake.

United Nations officials said on Tuesday that unknown gunmen shot and killed a South African peacekeeper in a restive northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) region. The soldier was struck late on Monday by a bullet fired from outside a UN base near Kavumu airport.

Traffic resumed on the Congo River and markets were busy with morning shoppers in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) capital, Kinshasa, on Monday, a day after assailants attacked four key military sites in an apparent coup bid.

A inquiry has begun in the Democratic Republic of Congo to establish the causes of a fatal accident in which a boat carrying more than 500 people sank after a fire broke out on board, a senior official said on Sunday. About 200 people are still missing following the tragedy, which happened last Monday.

Around 200 people are missing after a boat caught fire and sank last week on a river in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), a spokesperson for the UN mission in the central African country said on Saturday. Spokesperson Alexandre Essome quoted the owner of the ferry as saying he had ”no news” of 200 of its passengers.

The independence goals championed by Zaire’s first prime minister, Patrice Lumumba, remain unfulfilled in the country now known as the Democratic Republic of Congo, his son said on Sunday, 43 years after the charismatic leader’s assassination.

On his first visit to post-war Democratic Republic of Congo since a South African peace accord came into effect last year, South African President Thabo Mbeki has hailed the progress made in restoring democracy in the vast country after years of conflict.

South African President Thabo Mbeki began a two day visit to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) on Tuesday aimed at encouraging the transition to democracy here and rebuilding ties with a country traumatised by five years of war.

Following his return from international travel to brief governments and investors on the current state of the peace process in his country, Antoine Ghonda Mangalibi, Foreign Minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), spoke with Irin recently on his country’s view of the Great Lakes regional peace conference, and more.

A Kinshasa court has sentenced three journalists and six employees of state television in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to a year in jail for defamation and calumny. Each was also ordered to pay damages of 500 to Kikaya, said rights group Journalists in Danger.

The United States on Wednesday launched an initiative to rehabilitate former child soldiers in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) as part of a worldwide push to wipe out the phenomenon. US Labour Secretary Elaine Chao said that the ”forced recruitment of children as combatants is one of the worst forms of child labour and must be eliminated”.

The Democratic Republic of Congo government has raised the death toll from a military plane crash in the central part of the country to 33, including 13 people on the ground who were killed when the Antonov 26 plane plowed into a crowded market at the end of a runway.

Villagers and a government boat crew pulled out more victims on Friday from a ferry disaster that has already proven one of Africa’s deadliest, with many of the 182 bodies recovered so far buried in thick forests surrounding the Congo River lake where they drowned.

Search teams have recovered the bodies of 160 dead from a Congo River ferry collision and are searching for more than 100 others missing, authorities said on Thursday. Of roughly 500 aboard, 222 are known to have survived the collision of two ferries in a storm, which happened on Tuesday evening.

Some 700 traditional warriors known as Mai-Mai were demobilised at the weekend in a joint operation by UN peacekeepers and soldiers of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), a UN statement said on Monday.

The son of late Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) dictator Mobutu Sese Seko has returned from six years in exile — with an eye toward possibly succeeding his father, but through elections, aides said on Monday.

The eldest son of Zaire’s late dictator Mobutu Sese Seko has returned to the Democratic Republic of Congo after six years in exile, an airport official said in Kinshasa on Monday. Manda Mobutu recently made known his intention to repatriate his father’s remains from Morocco.

Opposition political leader Etienne Tshisekedi has returned to a triumphant welcome to the Democratic Republic of Congo after spending two years in exile in South Africa. He vowed to ”relaunch the activity of the [Union for Democracy and Social Progress] party … to take part in the elections after the transition period”.

Dissidents in a rebel group in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) are trying to undermine the peace process in the strife-torn Central African state. Senior rebel-group officers are refusing to assume commands assigned to them as part of a new restructured army in the peace and reconciliation process.

Former rebel leader Jean-Pierre Bemba, a convicted people-trafficker whose rebel group is accused of war crimes, was Thursday sworn in as a vice president in a peace-making government in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

The Democratic Republic of Congo’s main rebel leaders were sworn in as vice presidents in a new power-sharing government Thursday created to end the country’s nearly five-year-long civil war that has left over three-million people dead.

The European Union (EU) on Tuesday appealed to Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi to maintain ”constructive” relations with Kinshasa as the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) seeks to emerge from nearly five years of war.

The former leader of a small rebel movement in north-east Democratic Republic of Congo arrived in the capital Kinshasa on Tuesday to take up the post of trade minister in a new transition government.

The delayed swearing-in of ministers in Democratic Republic of Congo’s transition government, set up to guide the vast country to free elections, will take place on Tuesday, said the new environment minister.

The swearing-in of new members of the Democratic Republic of Congo’s (DRC) transition government, aimed at ending nearly five years of war and taking the country through to free elections, was suspended on Monday, without explanation from the authorities.

The son of Patrice Lumumba, the assassinated first prime minister of what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), on Tuesday said the ethnic nature of the country’s new transition government would lead the vast central African state back into war.

The international community and parties within Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) on Tuesday praised the country’s new unity government, set up to propel the former Zaire towards democracy and bring it lasting peace.

The Democratic of Congo’s (DRC) president signed a new power-sharing government into being on Monday, joining his government and rebels in an administration meant to lead the central African nation out of nearly 5 years of war.

Women’s organisations in north-eastern Democratic Republic of Congo on Monday accused the United Nations mission there of turning a blind eye to ongoing fighting which has ravaged this part of the vast African country.