Kinshasa, DR Congo | AFP | Nearly eight million people face acute hunger in the Democratic Republic of Congo as a result of conflict, especially in the central Kasai region, UN food agencies said Monday. “Food security and nutrition… are deteriorating in many parts of DRC, but nowhere is the situation …
Read More »Kasai marks a year of bloodshed as doubt hangs over DR Congo poll
TSHIKAPA, DR Congo | AFP |“Before, we were able to go to work in any mine to dig for diamonds. But today, we’re all afraid of dying,” artisanal miner Banayi Ilunga says grimly. Diamonds are the blessing of Kasai, a vast region of five provinces in Democratic Republic of Congo …
Read More »12 dead in Kinshasa violence: police
Kinshasa, DR Congo | AFP | Twelve people were killed Monday by stray gunfire in a wave of violence in Kinshasa, a spokesman for the national police said, accusing a political-religious sect opposed to President Joseph Kabila. The toll was a provisional estimate, Pierrot Rombaut Mwanamputu said in an emergency broadcast …
Read More »UN reports 251 killings in DR Congo’s Kasai, 62 children among dead
Geneva, Switzerland | AFP | The UN on Friday detailed more than 250 “extrajudicial or targeted killings” in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s Kasai region from mid-March to mid-June, counting dozens of children among the dead. The findings, based on interviews with refugees from Kasai who had fled to Angola, blamed …
Read More »DR Congo warlord accused of crimes against humanity surrenders
Kinshasa, DR Congo | AFP | Congolese rebel warlord Ntabo Ntaberi Sheka, wanted for crimes against humanity including mass rape, surrendered to UN peacekeepers in the Democratic Republic of Congo on Wednesday. Sheka was arrested in Mutongo, in the country’s North Kivu region by UN peacekeepers and was “transferred to …
Read More »UN to close five peacekeepers’ bases in eastern DR Congo
Kinshasa, DR Congo | AFP | Five UN peacekeepers’ bases in the Democratic Republic of Congo are to close at the end of July, the UN mission there announced Wednesday, describing it as a change in operational style. But the closures come against the background of cuts to the …
Read More »Tribal militia kidnap two Catholic priests in DR Congo
Goma, DR Congo | AFP | Tribal militia forces have kidnapped two Roman Catholic priests in the troubled North Kivu province of the Democratic Republic of Congo, officials said Monday. Kidnappings are frequent in this eastern part of the DRC, related to communal conflict between the Nande and Hunde tribes …
Read More »DRC: 11 park wardens, US journalist feared kidnapped at Okapi wildlife reserve
Bunia, DR Congo | AFP | Eleven park wardens and a US journalist in northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo are missing amid signs they were kidnapped by a local militia, sources said Saturday. “Eleven guards and an American journalist working for the Okapi Wildlife Reserve (RFO) were abducted on Friday …
Read More »DR Congo poll body says elections ‘not possible’ before December
Paris, France | AFP | Long-overdue presidential and legislative polls can only be held at the end of year in troubled Democratic Republic of Congo, the head of the national election commission said Friday. “It will not be possible before December,” Corneille Nangaa told reporters in Kinshasa. Elections are …
Read More »Eight DR Congo soldiers get stiff jail terms for Kasai killings
Kinshasa, DR Congo | AFP | A military court in DR Congo on Thursday handed stiff jail terms, including life imprisonment, to eight soldiers for killing civilians in the violence-wracked central Kasai region following mounting pressure from the UN. In less than a year, brutal violence in four central Kasai provinces …
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