Johannesburg, South Africa | AFP | The Democratic Republic of Congo’s opposition parties agreed on Thursday to name a single unity candidate by mid-November to run against President Joseph Kabila’s choice in December elections. Tensions are running high before the long-delayed December 23 vote to chose a successor to Kabila, …
Read More »‘We’ve got the power!’ In DRC, rap moves to take on rumba
Kinshasa, DR Congo | AFP | It is a conflict at once cultural, generational and political: rap music in DR Congo is staging a frontal assault on rumba, accusing its ageing stars of only singing of love and other banalities. DRC’s growing army of rappers say their urban lyrics reflect …
Read More »DRCongo opposition Kinshasa rally authorised for Friday – candidate
Kinshasa, DR Congo | AFP | The Democratic Republic of Congo’s opposition will be allowed to hold a Kinshasa rally on Friday to protest against voting machines they fear will permit fraud in December’s key election, an opposition official said. Political tensions are rising in the DRC before the long-delayed …
Read More »ADF Rebels kill 11, abduct 15 near Ebola zone in DR Congo
Beni, DR Congo | AFP | Rebels killed at least 11 people and abducted 15 others, including 10 children, in an overnight raid near Beni, near DR Congo’s eastern border with Uganda, security sources said Sunday. Police recovered the bodies of 11 civilians killed in the town of Matete north …
Read More »Seven dead, 23 missing in DR Congo canoe accident
Tshikapa, DR Congo | AFP | Seven diamond miners died and another 23 were missing after two canoes capsized in central Democratic Republic of Congo, government and mining officials said on Friday. Local official Kerozene Kabongo told AFP the canoes were carrying miners who dive for diamonds in the Kasai …
Read More »DR Congo threatens international action over Angola expulsions
Kinshasa, DR Congo | AFP | The Democratic Republic of Congo on Wednesday threatened to take international action over Angola’s recent, and allegedly violent, expulsion of some 200,000 illegal migrants from its west African neighbour. DR Congo invites the Angolan government “to carry out a thorough investigation in order to …
Read More »WHO says DRC Ebola outbreak not yet global emergency
Geneva, Switzerland | AFP | A deadly Ebola outbreak in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo is deeply worrying, but does not yet merit being labelled a global health emergency, the World Health Organization said Wednesday. “Based on the current context… the committee recommended that the current Ebola outbreak in DRC …
Read More »DR Congo identifies ‘second wave’ of Ebola in east
Kinshasa, DR Congo | AFP | A second wave of the Ebola virus has been confirmed in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, where an initial outbreak has already killed 125 people, a minister said Saturday. The latest wave is centred in Beni, a town in North Kivu near the border …
Read More »Community fears grow as DR Congo Ebola death toll climbs
Geneva, Switzerland | AFP | Humanitarian workers are struggling to calm community fears in strife-torn eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, where 125 people have died of Ebola, and cases of the virus are spreading fast. The World Health Organization said Friday that 200 cases of the deadly virus have been …
Read More »Kivu, Africa’s Great Lakes battleground
Goma, DR Congo | AFP | The Democratic Republic of Congo’s region of Kivu, where 2018 Nobel Peace Prize winner doctor Denis Mukwege is based, has been caught up in conflict and war for 24 years. The fighting inflicts on Kivu — which is divided into North and South provinces …
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