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/ 18 March 2008

Western DRC violence has killed 68, UN reports say

At least 68 people were killed in a two-week government crackdown against separatists in Democratic Republic of Congo’s (DRC) western Bas-Congo province, according to internal United Nations reports. Starting on February 28, hundreds of soldiers and police battled members of the ethnic-based political and religious movement Bundu dia Kongo.

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/ 15 March 2008

Makeba backs DRC women in fighting Aids

”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.

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/ 10 March 2008

Central Africa summit focuses on Chad

Leaders from 10 Central African nations began summit talks in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) on Monday regarding developments in Chad in the wake of a failed rebel offensive. President Joseph Kabila of the DRC welcomed six other heads of state, including Chad’s President Idriss Déby Itno.

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/ 4 March 2008

DRC rebels rejoin truce panel after massacre row

Congolese rebels loyal to renegade Tutsi General Laurent Nkunda have said they will return to a ceasefire commission monitoring a rocky January peace deal. The United Nations and Western governments brokered the January deal in the hope of establishing a lasting peace in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s turbulent east.

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/ 29 February 2008

Punish buyers of rebel DRC ore, UN panel says

Buyers of minerals from rebel areas of eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) should be punished under a United Nations arms embargo, a group of experts has told the Security Council. A five-year war in the country has left much of DRC’s eastern borderlands a volatile patchwork of rebel fiefdoms and militia-controlled zones.

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/ 23 February 2008

Nkunda deals new blow to DRC ceasefire

A shaky peace deal in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) took another hit on Friday when renegade general Laurent Nkunda said his group would no longer participate in daily ceasefire meetings. He said he had taken the decision after the United Nations accused forces loyal to him of massacring at least 30 villagers.

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/ 22 February 2008

DRC peace deal faces hitch over massacre charges

A month-old peace accord in east Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) faced a fresh hitch on Friday when Tutsi rebels halted participation in a ceasefire commission in protest at United Nations allegations they had massacred civilians. The move announced by renegade Tutsi General Laurent Nkunda posed a potential threat to the January 23 ceasefire.

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/ 14 February 2008

Fresh tremor shakes quake-hit eastern DRC

A second big earthquake in less than two weeks brought down houses and left at least 60 people injured in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Rwanda on Thursday, officials said. The quake measured 5,5 on the Richter scale, according to monitors, and caused panicked residents to rush from their homes.

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/ 28 January 2008

DRC ceasefire broken as rebels and militia clash

Congolese Tutsi rebels and Mai Mai militia clashed on Monday in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), breaking a ceasefire signed last week aimed at ending a long-running conflict, the two factions said. Tutsi fighters loyal to renegade General Laurent Nkunda and Pareco Mai Mai militia blamed each other for the fighting.

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/ 23 January 2008

Reforming the DRC’s security forces

Five years after its war officially ended, insecurity and rights violations remain widespread in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Part of the problem lies with the army and police, which are undergoing major reform. Ernest Harsch examines the overhaul of both the police and army institutions.

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/ 22 January 2008

Congo war-driven crisis kills 45 000 a month

War, disease and malnutrition are killing 45 000 Congolese every month in a conflict-driven humanitarian crisis that has claimed 5,4-million victims in nearly a decade, a survey released on Tuesday said. The findings were published on the day the government and eastern rebel and militia factions were due to sign a ceasefire.

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/ 21 January 2008

DRC govt, rebels to sign ceasefire

Democratic Republic of Congo’s (DRC) government and warring rebel and militia factions will sign a deal on Tuesday to end fighting in the country’s conflict-torn east, government officials and diplomats said on Monday. The agreement, which will include a ceasefire, was announced following more than two weeks of talks.

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/ 11 January 2008

DRC rebels rejoin peace conference

Tutsi rebels in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) on Friday rejoined a peace conference aimed at ending long-running conflict in the east, a day after suspending their participation over security concerns. The rebels’ leader, renegade General Laurent Nkunda, told Reuters he was ready if necessary to take part in the meeting.

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/ 26 December 2007

DRC warlord declares ceasefire

Congolese warlord Laurent Nkunda has declared a ceasefire ahead of peace talks with the government intended to end a spiraling conflict in the country’s lawless east, said a close associate of Nkunda. ”We confirm that we have called a ceasefire,” said Nkunda’s second-in-command, Bwambale Kakolele, on Wednesday.

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/ 23 December 2007

DRC violence fuels surge in child abduction

Fighting in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo this month has led to a surge in child abductions by armed groups who force minors to fight, carry ammunition or become their sex slaves, Save the Children said on Monday. Some children were kept captive in small holes in the ground as punishment or after being captured by enemy groups.

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/ 26 November 2007

UN urges DRC rebels to lay down arms

A senior United Nations official has called on armed groups in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s (DRC) troubled Nord Kivu region to lay down their arms and reintegrate into the regular army, a statement said on Monday. Intense fighting has been shaking eastern Nord-Kivu province near the border with Rwanda for weeks.

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/ 22 November 2007

UN to help DRC disarm dissidents by force

United Nations peacekeepers will help the Democratic Republic of Congo’s (DRC) army disarm eastern dissident groups by force in violence-plagued North Kivu province, UN and Congolese commanders said. Army soldiers and fighters loyal to renegade Tutsi general Laurent Nkunda clashed again on Thursday a few kilometres from Rutshuru.

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/ 13 November 2007

Congo refugees flee after attack near camp

Thousands of refugees poured out of camps in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo’s violent North Kivu province on Tuesday after the army said Tutsi-dominated insurgents attacked its positions. Army troops repelled the dawn raid on their positions near Mugunga camp, killing 27 fighters loyal to renegade General Laurent Nkunda.

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/ 13 November 2007

DRC refugees flee camp after attack

Thousands of refugees fled camps in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo’s violent Nord-Kivu province on Tuesday after the army said Tutsi-dominated insurgents attacked its positions nearby. ”There’s a massive movement of displaced towards Goma,” said the director of the World Food Programme in Goma.

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/ 10 November 2007

DRC official arrested over radioactive waste

A government official in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) suspected of ordering up to 17 tonnes of radioactive waste dumped in a river in the south-east of the country has been arrested, authorities said on Friday. Environment Minister Didace Pembe declined to identify the person who was arrested.

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/ 8 November 2007

DRC experts hurry to test river for radiation

Environmental experts hurried to the south-eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) on Thursday to test water from a river where authorities suspect 18 tonnes of radioactive minerals were dumped last week. Officials feared contamination of the river, an important source of drinking water for thousands of people in Katanga province.

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/ 7 November 2007

Radioactive minerals dumped in DRC

Authorities in the Democratic Republic of Congo have launched an inquiry into the suspected dumping of 18 tonnes of highly radioactive minerals into a river in Katanga province. The minerals, including 17 tonnes of copper ore with a level of radioactivity 50 times the tolerable limit, were seized last month in the southern Katanga mining town of Likasi.

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/ 5 November 2007

DRC police kill child in refugee food protest

Police in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s (DRC) North Kivu province opened fire on refugees during a violent protest over food distributions on Monday, killing a child and wounding 11 civilians. Villagers driven from their homes three weeks ago by fighting between government soldiers and rebels had erected barricades in the town of Kiwanja.

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/ 27 October 2007

Torrential rain kills 30 in DRC

Torrential overnight rain killed 30 people and left a hundred injured in Kinshasa, according to a new toll from the Democratic Republic of Congo’s (DRC) Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs. Many homes also collapsed in the flash floods caused by the heavy rain on Thursday night and Friday morning.

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/ 26 October 2007

Torrential rains kill nine in DRC capital

Torrential rain overnight killed nine people and caused many homes to collapse in Kinshasa, a government spokesperson in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Toussaint Tshilombo Send, said on Friday. All the waterways in the east of Kinshasa, a city of more than six million, burst their banks and flooded crop plantations.

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/ 24 October 2007

UN: Latest DRC fighting displaces 33 000 people

The latest clashes in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) have driven 33 000 more people from villages in Nord-Kivu province and a cholera outbreak is suspected, United Nations agencies reported on Wednesday. About 25 000 people have been uprooted in the rugged Rutshuru highlands about 50km north of the provincial capital, Goma.

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/ 23 October 2007

Ugandan rebel commander surrenders in DRC

A commander of Uganda’s Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) has surrendered in northern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and is in the custody of Congolese authorities, the United Nations said on Tuesday. Opiyo Makasi, reported to be the rebel group’s operations and logistics commander, gave himself up along with his wife.

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/ 18 October 2007

DRC militia chief to face war-crimes charges

The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) on Thursday transferred a militia chief to the International Criminal Court in The Hague to face war-crimes charges, including sexual enslavement and using child soldiers. Germain Katanga (29), who once led the Forces for Patriotic Resistance in Ituri, was flown out of Kinshasa early on Thursday.

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/ 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.