Tag Archives: congo

Brazzaville, Congo | AFP | Congo broke ground on a new Chinese-funded parliament building in the capital Brazzaville on Monday estimated at over 52 million euros ($58 million). The investment from China’s government was criticised by opposition groups which pointed out that Congo is in the midst of an economic …

Kinshasa, DRC | AFRICAN ARGUMENTS| History tells us that summer months are often eventful in Congolese politics. It was on 30 June 1960 that the country gained independence from Belgium. On that day, Belgium’s King Baudouin declared: “the Congo constitutes the culmination of the work conceived by the genius of …

Kinshasa, DR Congo | AFP |  Dozens of prisoners escaped from a jail in Democratic Republic of Congo early Friday, less than 48 hours after rebels attacked Kinshasa’s main prison, freeing their leader and 50 others. “Among the 74 prisoners housed in the dilapidated prison in Kasangulu, 68 escaped,” local …

Oslo, Norway | AFP |  A British-Norwegian dual citizen who was serving a life sentence for murder and espionage in a Congolose prison was released and returned to Norway on Wednesday, authorities said. Joshua French, 35, was sentenced to life in prison in 2013 for the murder of his cellmate …

Kinshasa, DR Congo | AFP |  Rebels from an outlawed political-religious group attacked Kinshasa’s central prison on Wednesday, breaking out their leader and about 50 other prisoners, the Congolese government said. “Followers of the Bundu Dia Kongo (BDK) attacked Makala prison at dawn and broke out around 50 prisoners including …

Ebola epidemic declared in northeast DR Congo, three dead: WHO Kinshasa, DR Congo | AFP |  The first Ebola outbreak since the crisis in West Africa that killed 11,300 people has been declared in northeast Democratic Republic of Congo, the World Health Organization said Friday, after the virus caused three …

Goma, DR Congo | AFP |  Twenty-nine people have been killed in three days of clashes between rival factions of a militia group in a village in Democratic Republic of Congo’s restive east, an official said Friday. The two factions are fighting for control of the village of Bweru in …

DR Congo president names new PM under power-sharing deal Kinshasa, DR Congo | AFP | President Joseph Kabila on Friday named an opposition leader as prime minister for the Democratic Republic of Congo, honouring a pledge made as part of a stalled power-sharing deal agreed in December. Bruno Tshibala, a …

Kinshasa, DR Congo | AFP | Two foreign UN experts who were kidnapped in DR Congo have been found dead, one of them decapitated, the government said Tuesday, as spiralling violence in the vast country sparked international condemnation. The bodies of American Michael Sharp and Swedish national Zahida Catalan were …

The Hague, Netherlands | AFP | The International Criminal Court Friday ordered 297 victims of ex-Congolese warlord Germain Katanga to each be paid “a symbolic” $250 in damages for a brutal 2003 attack on their village, in the tribunal’s first such award. Awarding both individual and collective damages, the court also …