In the ruins of the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi, Nelson Gashagaza survived by becoming someone else’s child. In this two-part series as Rwanda commemorates Kwibuka32, he tells a personal story on a performed kinship, ordinary horror and the meaning of belonging
But as they mourn, remember and reflect on their past, Rwandans are building their country into one of the continent’s shining examples of what can be done when the people unite and put national interest at the core of their lives
When Congo’s President, Felix Tshisekedi, squeezes his corpulent bulk into designer clothing, accessorised with expensive watches that would feed thousands of his immiserated citizens for years and climbs into a flying palace to shuttle around the world to weep crocodile tears and move the powerful to pity his long-suffering people, it is a diversionary dance in step with his Western audience
The DRC has accused Rwanda of backing the Tutsi-led M23 rebel group, but Kigali denies it
African leaders’ sartorial choices have been communicating their political orientations for centuries
And yet, too often we are confronted with the shameful reality that the world has not learned the lessons of the 1994 Rwanda genocide.
In the 25 years since the genocide, the world has witnessed countless crimes fuelled by the same politics of demonisation and tactics of exclusion
Although many years have passed, the Rwandan genocide still has much to teach us about the centrality of media in cases of state violence
Rwanda’s Hutu rebels in the DRC claimed on Friday they had inflicted heavy losses on the forces involved in the joint operation launched against them.
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/ 27 January 2009
The armies of the DRC and Rwanda clashed with fighters trying to retake a village and killed four of them, a military spokesperson said on Tuesday.
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/ 23 January 2009
Tutsi rebel leader Laurent Nkunda has been arrested in Rwandan territory after he tried to resist a joint Rwandan-Congolese military operation.
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/ 10 November 2008
Congolese rebel leader Laurent Nkunda said on Monday he would fight African peacekeepers if they backed government troops against him.
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/ 7 November 2008
Tutsi rebels in eastern DRC have been accused of summarily killing civilians as they seized a town that had been the stronghold of Hutu militias.
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/ 31 October 2008
Rebel troops were poised outside the Congolese city of Goma on Friday as the EU mulled sending troops to the strife-torn region to prevent a disaster.
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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/ 22 February 2008
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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/ 28 January 2008
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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/ 17 October 2007
The Democratic Republic of Congo’s (DRC) army has orders to forcibly disarm soldiers loyal to renegade general Laurent Nkunda, President Joseph Kabila said on Wednesday, but he declined to say when the offensive would begin. ”The armed forces … have received the green light to begin, or rather to prepare, the forced disarmament of Mr Nkunda,” Kabila said.
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/ 16 October 2007
The United Nations made a last appeal on Monday for rebel Congolese soldiers to rejoin the national army. Democratic Republic of Congo President Joseph Kabila had given renegade General Laurent Nkunda until Monday to send his fighters to army integration centres or see them forcibly disarmed.
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/ 7 September 2007
Renegade Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) General Laurent Nkunda said on Friday the Congolese army had attacked his position, breaking a fragile ceasefire negotiated by United Nations mediators in eastern DRC. ”I have told Monuc [the United Nations mission in DRC] that we were attacked this morning [Friday],” Nkunda said.
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/ 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.