Category Archives: Democratic Republic of the Congo

‘I can’t cut the signal’: DRC radio boss vows to stay on air as rebels seize key city

Posted on by

His journalists have fled from M23 violence but Patrick Sugira is staying put, saying people depend on his broadcasts

Last Wednesday evening, Patrick Kiroha Sugira sent a text message to a friend via WhatsApp: “The security situation is very bad here. We have nowhere to go. I am at the radio.”

Within days, Sugira, the director of Horizon community radio station in Rutshuru, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), was in hiding with his wife and children and other terrified citizens. The town was one of two overrun by armed rebels on Saturday, in a resurgence of violence in the area that is escalating tensions across the region.

Continue reading...

African countries urge rich nations to honour $100bn climate finance pledge

Posted on by

Ministers rebuke ‘shameful’ failure to meet funding promises for poorer countries to cope with climate crisis ahead of Cop27 summit


Ministers and high-ranking officials of African nations have urged rich countries to do more to combat the climate crisis, and called the failure to meet a funding promise from 2009 “shameful”.

At a conference in Giza, Egypt, on Wednesday in the run-up to next month’s UN climate summit, Wael Aboulmagd, Egypt’s special representative for Cop27, attacked wealthier nations for not honouring an agreement to provide $100bn (£87.5bn) a year to developing countries by 2020.

Continue reading...

DRC officials tumble as bridge collapses at ribbon-cutting ceremony

Posted on by

Spectators shout in apparent glee as dignitaries struggle to get off crumpled structure during launch

Dignitaries gathered to inaugurate a footbridge in the capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo only for the structure to collapse beneath their feet to the barely concealed delight of onlookers, a video shows.

Just as an organiser cut the ribbon at the ceremony in Mont-Ngafula district in Kinshasa, the bridge buckled, both its handrails broke off and the central section slumped into a stream a couple of metres below.

Continue reading...

Let them eat bugs: UK urges hunger-stricken African nations to farm insects

Posted on by

Aid projects in DRC and Zimbabwe encourage rural inhabitants to eat insects rich in vitamins and minerals

UK aid spending is encouraging hunger-stricken Africans to eat insects, with projects aiming to develop the practice in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Zimbabwe.

Edible insects have long been touted as a resource-efficient source of protein, requiring less land and water than conventional livestock. However, taste and cultural resistance have proved to be stumbling blocks in extending the practice in many parts of the world.

Continue reading...

Blinken raises concerns over Hotel Rwanda dissident trial with Kagame

Posted on by

US secretary of state on last stop of African tour has been clear about US misgivings related to Paul Rusesabagina’s conviction

The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, has raised US concerns about the trial of the jailed dissident Paul Rusesabagina with Paul Kagame, president of Rwanda, and other senior Rwandan officials during a visit to the capital Kigali.

Blinken is in Kigali on the last stop of a tour of sub-Saharan Africa that aims to regain the diplomatic initiative across a continent that received little attention under the Trump administration.

Continue reading...

US and DRC to work together on protection of rainforest and peatlands

Posted on by

Antony Blinken announces formal working group during Kinshasa visit, while voicing concerns over auction of oil and gas permits

The US and the Democratic Republic of the Congo have agreed to form a working group to protect the enormous Congo basin rainforest and peatlands, which are threatened by oil and gas exploration.

The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, made the announcement in Kinshasa on Tuesday while expressing his concern over the sale of dozens of oil and gas permits in the DRC that included blocks in Virunga national park and the Cuvette Centrale tropical peatlands, part of an area described as “the worst place on the planet” to drill for oil and gas.

Continue reading...

Death toll reaches 36 in eastern DRC as protesters turn on UN peacekeepers

Posted on by

With elections due next year, analysts fear political motives could be driving the rising violence and tensions in the region

Fears of a new wave of violence in the restive east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo are growing after weeks of deadly protests against UN peacekeepers and rising regional tensions.

Thirty-six people, including four UN peacekeepers, have died in the past two weeks as hundreds of protesters vandalised and set fire to UN buildings in several cities in eastern frontier provinces.

Continue reading...

At least 15 killed in second day of anti-UN violence in DRC

Posted on by

Protesters and United Nations personnel among dead after incidents that left about 50 injured

At least 15 people were killed and about 50 wounded during a second day of violent anti-United Nations protests in the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s eastern cities of Goma and Butembo, authorities have said.

The dead included demonstrators and UN personnel as UN sites were attacked by crowds.

Continue reading...

DRC to auction oil and gas permits in endangered gorilla habitat

Posted on by

Sale calls into question protection deal signed at Cop26 as expert warns Congo auction could be a catastrophe for wildlife, health and climate

The Democratic Republic of the Congo has announced it will auction oil and gas permits in critically endangered gorilla habitat and the world’s largest tropical peatlands next week. The sale raises concerns about the credibility of a forest protection deal signed with the country by Boris Johnson at Cop26.

On Monday, hydrocarbons minister Didier Budimbu said the DRC was expanding an auction of oil exploration blocks to include two sites that overlap with Virunga national park, a Unesco world heritage site home to Earth’s last remaining mountain gorillas.

Continue reading...

Weatherwatch: ‘evil wind’ around African lake that can be deadly

Posted on by

Phenomenon at Lake Kivu happens when CO2 from volcanic activity leaks through cracks in the ground

The Swahili word mazuku means roughly “evil wind” and refers to a lethal phenomenon around Lake Kivu on the border between the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Rwanda.

Carbon dioxide from volcanic activity leaks from cracks in the ground. The gas is heavier than air and collects in hollows, cellars, and low-lying areas, forming invisible and sometimes deadly pools, especially on windless nights. High concentrations of CO2 produce dizziness, nausea, confusion and weakness. Unwary victims who do not leave immediately tend to collapse then die in the high concentration of gas close to the ground.

Continue reading...

DRC buries independence hero Patrice Lumumba’s tooth, his only remains

Posted on by

Coffin containing tooth is buried in ceremony on 62nd anniversary of DRC’s independence

The family of the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s murdered independence hero Patrice Lumumba buried his only known remains – a tooth – in the capital, Kinshasa, on Thursday, 61 years after his death at the hands of Belgian-backed secessionist rebels.

Hundreds gathered in a vast square for the occasion, waving flags and looking upon a large photo of Lumumba, with his trademark horn-rimmed glasses and side-swept hair, framed by white flowers.

Continue reading...

East African leaders propose deploying regional force to help DRC

Posted on by

EAC meeting convened to discuss sending personnel to eastern DRC where military has been fighting rebels

East African heads of state have gathered for a closed-doors meeting in Kenya to discuss the deteriorating security situation in the east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where the DRC military has been fighting a resurgence of M23 rebels.

The rebels are a group of mainly Tutsi fighters that were defeated in 2013 by the Congolese army and UN peacekeepers. DRC accused Rwanda of backing the rebels – which Rwanda denies – sparking a diplomatic row between the neighbouring countries.

Continue reading...

Belgium returns Patrice Lumumba’s tooth to his family 61 years after his murder

Posted on by

Congolese independence hero’s gold-capped tooth returned as ex-colonial power faces its bloody past

Belgian authorities have returned a tooth belonging to the murdered Congolese independence hero Patrice Lumumba, as the former colonial power continues to confront its bloody past and look toward reconciliation.

The restitution of the relic took place after Belgium’s King Philippe expressed his “deepest regrets” this month for his country’s abuses in its African former colony, Congo, 75 times the size of Belgium.

Continue reading...

Belgium to return Patrice Lumumba’s gold tooth in bid to atone for colonial crimes

Posted on by

Relic of the murdered Republic of Congo leader will be returned to his family as Brussels confronts its bloody past in Africa

The Belgian government will return a tooth of Patrice Lumumba to his family this week, hoping to draw a line under one of the most brutal and shameful episodes in the country’s bloody exploitation of central Africa.

The relic is all that remains of Lumumba, the first prime minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, under its earlier name Republic of Congo, and an icon of the struggle against colonialism in Africa, who was murdered by separatists and Belgian mercenaries in 1961. His killers dissolved his remains in acid, though some kept teeth as macabre mementoes.

Continue reading...

Growing numbers of young Africans want to move abroad, survey suggests

Posted on by

Covid, climate, stability and violence contributing to young people feeling pessimistic about future, survey of 15 countries suggests

African youth have lost confidence in their own countries and the continent as a whole to meet their aspirations and a rising number are considering moving abroad, according to a survey of young people from 15 countries.

The pandemic, climate crisis, political instability and violence have all contributed to making young people “jittery” about their futures since the Covid pandemic began, according to the African Youth Survey published on Monday.

Continue reading...

Knee problem forces Pope Francis to cancel Africa trip

Posted on by

Pontiff, 85, had planned to visit Democratic Republic of the Congo and South Sudan in early July

Pope Francis has scrapped a trip to Africa owing to an ongoing problem with his knee, raising further scrutiny about the 85-year-old pontiff’s health.

The Vatican spokesperson Matteo Bruni said the planned visit to the Democratic Republic of the Congo and South Sudan in early July had been cancelled “at the request of his doctors in order not to jeopardise the results of the therapy that he is undergoing for his knee” and would be rescheduled to a later date.

Continue reading...

The Congolese student fighting with pro-Russia separatists in Ukraine

Posted on by

Jean Claude Sangwa took up arms in Luhansk – and his pro-Moscow views are mainstream in much of Africa

Fighting alongside pro-Russia separatists as part of Moscow’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine wasn’t mentioned in the brochures of Luhansk University when Jean Claude Sangwa, a 27-year-old student from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, moved to the breakaway region last year to study economics.

But when the head of the Kremlin-controlled, self-declared Luhansk People’s Republic announced a full military mobilisation of the region on 19 February, Sangwa, together with two friends and fellow students from DRC and Central African Republic, decided to join the local militia and take up arms against Ukraine.

Continue reading...

At least 27 civilians killed by rebels in Democratic Republic of the Congo

Posted on by

Army and Red Cross said the notorious Allied Democratic Forces were behind the attack in the country’s east

At least 27 civilians have been killed by members of a notorious rebel group in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, the army and Red Cross said.

The Kivu Security Tracker (KST), which monitors violence in the region via a team of experts on the ground, posted on Twitter to say that at least 27 civilians were killed in Saturday’s attack by the rebel Allied Democratic Forces (ADF).

Continue reading...

‘You hear bullets, you run’: Congolese refugees stream over Uganda’s border

Posted on by

As thousands flee the latest fighting in DRC to join 1.5m already in Uganda, the UN’s food aid agency is stretched as never before

The rain will determine what time Uwimana Nsengiyuava gets on the truck to Nyakabande transit centre, where Uganda is hosting 20,000 refugees who, like her, have fled fresh fighting in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

Since March, up to 500 refugees a day have been silently streaming into the east African country via Kisoro, a picturesque district in south-west Uganda dotted with endless hills, streams and a lake.

Continue reading...

Médecins Sans Frontières apologises for using images of child rape survivor

Posted on by

Medical charity’s president calls publication of controversial photographs ‘a mistake’ and says guidelines will be tightened

The international president of Médecins Sans Frontières has apologised for publishing photographs of a teenage rape survivor from the Democratic Republic of the Congo on its website, following criticism that the images were unethical and racist.

Dr Christos Christou also announced that the medical charity had tightened its guidelines on photographing vulnerable minors, such as survivors of sexual abuse, requiring that they should not be identified visually or by name.

Continue reading...