North Kivu

latest news & developments
The M23 rebels have said they support the withdrawal of the South African National Defence Force from the UN Organisation Stabilisation Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
 Photo: Wikipedia

The fall of Uvira is a turning point in the DRC conflict

The city’s capture by M23 means neighbouring Burundi, an ally of the DRC government, now shares a border with an area controlled by the rebels, escalating the risk of…

Former DRC president Joseph Kabila.

Ramaphosa, Mnangagwa urge DRC’s Tshisekedi to drop Kabila charges

Sources said Mnangagwa and Ramaphosa discussed Kabila’s predicament in Zimbabwe in August and agreed that the treason charges were not fair

Former DRC president Joseph Kabila. (Flickr)

Former DRC leader Joseph Kabila’s treason verdict postponed as new evidence emerges

Kabila, who has been living in exile since late 2023, faces charges including treason, complicity with M23 rebels, crimes against humanity and corruption

The M23 rebels have said they support the withdrawal of the South African National Defence Force from the UN Organisation Stabilisation Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
 Photo: Wikipedia

Mbeki throws diplomatic hot potato at government over M23 invitation

The international relations department was not aware of the rebels’ presence in South Africa

Intense clashes  resumed between M23 rebels and a coalition of government forces, local militias known as Wazalendo and the Burundian army.

M23 to attend peace conference, but DRC government boycotting

Opposition officials in the DRC have accused the government of blocking their attempts to travel to the forum hosted by the Thabo Mbeki Foundation

Hundreds of thousands of people have been displaced by the war in the DRC. Photo: WFP/Michael Castofas

Displaced again: People flee fear, hunger as violence grips eastern DRC

Urgent diplomatic interventions are needed as the second largest city in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo falls to M23

Casualty: Innocent Kasereka had his neck slashed by members of the March 23 Movement. Photo: Alexis  Huguet/AFP

‘Living in fear’ in relentless battle for east DRC

The conflict has raged between rebels of the March 23 Movement and Congolese armed forces since late 2021

No vote: The election posters may be up but many people in eastern DRC haven’t received their voters’ cards. Photo: Alexis Huguet/AFP

Ahead of DR Congo vote, people in volatile east feel abandoned

Much of the region is prey to armed groups, an aftermath of regional wars in the 1990s and 2000s

On guard: Peacekeepers from the United Nations Organisation Stabilisation Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, known as Monusco, carry out a field training exercise in Sake, a town about 30km from Goma in the eastern part of the DRC. Photo: Glody Murhabazi/AFP

UN force deployed for ‘Operation Springbok’ to save DRC civilians

Clashes broke out again at the start of October after six months of relative calm, pitting rebels against the national army

In DRC camps women face stark choice: hunger or rape. (Photo by Fabio Teixeira/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

In DRC camps, women face stark choice: hunger or rape

Hundreds of thousands of people are crammed into camps around the city of Goma, a crisis triggered by M23 rebels

DRC President Félix Tshisekedi. (Twitter/ Présidence RDC/Nicolas Maeterlinck/AFP/Getty Images)

Don’t revive Leopold’s ghost or legitimise DRC’s president, Felix Tshisekedi

Like King Leopold II, Tshisekedi has enriched himself through stealing power and suppressing democracy. Belgium’s monarch should stand with Congolese, not the colonial past

Disillusioned: Former combatants play a game of checkers at the Mubambiro camp in the DRC. (Guerchom Ndebo/AFP)

The DRC’s surrendered rebels are left in limbo

Former Democratic Republic of the Congo militia fighters housed in sordid conditions, such as at camp Mubambiro, are protesting their living conditions

New life: Former child soldier Joseph Bisole, 27, now combats illegal charcoal production for the World Wildlife Fund. Photo: Alexis Huguet/AFP

DRC’s former child soldiers face tough return to civilian life

Many of the former child combatants are overwhelmed by the horrors they have witnessed in a part of the country that has been ravaged by violence for more than 25 years

Nyiragongo volcano, near the city of Goma, in the east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, suddenly became active on Saturday evening. (Photo by Alex Miles/AFP)

Volcano evacuation order sparks mass exodus in DRC

Tens of thousands of residents fled Goma last weekend after Nyiragongo erupted on Saturday night — many across the nearby border to Rwanda — before returning.

West Africa readies for Ebola battle

Guinea is fighting the virus with a vaccine used in the DRC, while their neighbours Sierra Leone and Liberia increase border surveillance