AK-47s Known as 'Credit Cards' in Lawless East

Reuters report via CFD - 22 June 2006 by David Lewis BUNIA, Congo:

Some fight in flip-flops, others hope potions will turn their enemy's bullets into water and most take little time to aim, trusting in the theory: "He who makes most noise wins."

But the government soldiers, militia fighters and bush bandits in eastern Congo all have one thing in common -- an AK-47 assault rifle.

"At $20 to $50 each, it's pretty easy to get your hands on an AK out here," explains a source close to the militia groups in Democratic Republic of Congo's lawless Ituri district.

"There is no shortage of weapons, there are plenty of them," the source added. "Of course ammunition is needed, but that comes in from Uganda easily."

Ituri is a particularly bloody corner of Congo, a mineral-rich but shattered country where four million people have been killed, mostly from war-related hunger and disease, since 1998.

Far removed from central government authority, Ituri has long porous borders with countries coveting its natural resources and a thinly stretched body of United Nations peacekeepers. The region highlights the challenges of controlling the flow of arms around Africa's Great Lakes.

Fighting between ethnic militias exploded in Bunia, Ituri's main town, in 2003 and European soldiers were dispatched to restore order after U.N. peacekeepers failed to prevent hundreds of civilians from being killed.

As Congo prepares for elections this year, thousands of militia fighters have signed up for disarmament programs, in theory swapping guns for school, training and jobs as civilians.

U.N. peacekeepers ceremonially burned stacks of weapons, while serviceable guns seized off militia were given to the new army. An arms embargo is meant to cut off fresh supplies.

'CONGOLESE CREDIT CARD'

But, frustrated with the lack of opportunities in their new lives, angry at the excesses of poorly paid government soldiers and loath to stop looting civilians and plundering gold mines, many in Ituri have found it easy to take up arms again.

"There are still weapons that are coming in and this will continue so long as there are people who are willing to pay for them," said Major Hans-Jakob Reichen, spokesman for the U.N. forces in eastern Congo.

Sanctions have been imposed on those breaking the arms embargo. U.N. helicopters fly at night, using thermal imaging to try and catch smugglers. And peacekeepers in speedboats patrol hundreds of miles of lakes separating Congo and its neighbors.

But militia ranks have swollen in recent months and, as a reminder of their strength, they are holding seven U.N. peacekeepers hostage following a gun battle last month.

Reichen says the United Nations can act as a deterrent but can only do so much to rid the nation of guns.

"It is a huge task that the U.N. will not be able to fulfill until the authority of the state is imposed."

Ituri is a microcosm of the Congo where, analysts say, the wealth in gold, timber, diamonds and other minerals needed by expanding Western economies has been plundered by local and foreign armed groups during years of chaos and instability.

During Congo's two wars, the last of which officially ended in 2003, officials handed out weapons to civilians, telling them to use them to defend their ethnic groups from attacks by rivals.

Despite the billions invested in peacekeeping and the determination of the international community to hold Congo's first free elections in over 40 years in July, vast swathes of the country remain outside the government's control.

And thousands of gunmen continue to roam the lawless east armed with their AK-47s -- known to some as the "Congolese credit card" -- harassing and killing civilians.

DRC: New disarmament deadline, amnesty offer for militiamen

IRIN report June 15, 2006:

Militia active in Ituri District in northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) have until 30 June to disarm, according to an ultimatum by the national army and the United Nations Mission in the DRC, known as MONUC.

The army has deployed Brig-Gen Mbuyamba Nsiona from the capital, Kinshasa, to Ituri to take charge of the operation, which is aimed at securing the district ahead of general elections set for 30 July. Speaking in Bunia, the main town in the district, Nsiona said on Thursday that after the expiry of the deadline, militiamen who refuse to surrender would be forcibly disarmed.

Two disarmament sites would be opened from 19 June for those who wish to surrender: one at Aveba, 70km north of Bunia, and one at Kpandroma, 120km north of Bunia. All militia who give themselves up before the deadline would receive amnesty from the government, he said. Upon disarmament, they would receive certificates to distinguish them from militia who had not surrendered.

"There will be no victimisation," Nsiona said, adding that government soldiers who prevent or discourage militia from disarming would be punished.

The DRC's National Commission of Disarmament estimates that out of 16,300 militiamen that had been identified in Ituri, at least 4,000 had defied an earlier disarmament deadline - 30 April - issued by MONUC. A majority of those who are yet to disarm are loyal to a new alliance of several militia groups, the Mouvement révolutionnaires Congolais (MRC).

On Wednesday, at least 121 militiamen gave up their weapons under a joint disarmament operation between MONUC and the National Commission for Disarmament. The militia surrendered in Katoni village, 15km south of Bunia. Katoni is also is home to at least 18,000 people who have been displaced by fighting, said Idrissa Conteh, an information officer with the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Among the surrendered weapons were 47 AK-47 rifles; 16,000 rounds of ammunition; and three bombs, a source at the disarmament commission said.

"Fifty other militias also voluntarily surrendered their weapons to the army," Brig-Gen Nsiona said. Among the militia who surrendered were 31 combatants from Tcheyi, 100km south of Bunia, where the army is fighting the MRC.

MONUC had identified five child soldiers in Tcheyi. "They were spies for the militias," Nsiona said.

A Congolese army captain who requested anonymity said they had information that there were 100 other militiamen who were willing to surrender, "but they are afraid of certain FARDC [Congolese national army] forces on the ground."

Bush for talks with Congo on Sudan conflict

United States president George Bush will meet with the president of the Republic of Congo and head of the 53-nation African Union, Denis Sassou-Nguesso, at the White House on Monday.

White House press secretary Tony Snow said the two leaders would discuss the Darfur conflict in Sudan.

The two presidents also will discuss ways to strengthen democracy and improve the lives of the Congolese people, said Snow. - Sapa-AP via Cape Argus June 2, 2006.

UN Security Council tour June 5 ends in Kinshasa, DR Congo

A 10-day UN Security Council tour led by British Ambassador Sir Emyr Jones Parry, along with French Ambassador Jean-Marc de la Sabliere, begins on June 5 and includes Khartoum, southern Sudan, refugee camps in Darfur and Chad and African Union headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

The trip ends in Kinshasa, capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. - Reuters May 30, 2006.

UN peacekeeping mission in the Congo is the largest and costs $1 billion a year

Reuters report May 30, 2006 tells us the largest UN peacekeeping mission of 17,000 troops and civilians is in the Congo at a cost of $1 billion a year.

What's Needed to Prevent the Deaths of Millions More Congolese - Time Magazine

Email just in from Friends of the Congo May 30, 2006:

In its June 5th issue, Time magazine features on its cover the Congo crisis, entitled, "Congo:The Hidden Toll of the World's Deadliest War" by By Simon Robinson and Vivienne Walt.

Time correctly raises the critical issue of "what's needed to prevent the deaths of millions more [Congolese]." However, its accounting of the facts are incomplete and it's analysis does not lead us to a comprehensive prescription for preventing more dying and suffering in the Congo.

Time claims, in part, that the world has let "Congo bleed" because of its "maligned reputation and feckless rulers." Aside from the fact that there is absolutely no justification for letting "the Congo bleed" to the tune of 4 million dead since 1998, Time totally misses the central cause for the conflict and unbearable human toll in the Congo. The reason why the Congo bleeds today is the same reason it bled under Belgium's King Leopold II's genocidal reign of the Congo from 1885 - 1908, when at least 10 million or half of the Congolese population perished in a 23 year span as the King brutally and illegally exploited the resources (at that time rubber and ivory) and labor of the Congo.

The central issue of the Congo has long been its enormous wealth and the nexus that exists among local sycophants seeking to enrich themselves at the expense of the people, greedy neighbors with visions of regional grandeur and the veracious appetite by Western governments and corporations to profit from the natural resources of the Congo with no regard for Congolese lives. Until this issue is squarely and honestly addressed the Congo will continue to "bleed."

Johann Hari hit the nail on the head in his article Congo's Tragedy: the War the World Forgot" published in the May 6 edition of the Independent online. He stated "This war has been dismissed as an internal African implosion. In reality it is a battle for coltan, diamonds, cassiterite and gold, destined for sale in London, New York and Paris. It is a battle for the metals that make our technological society vibrate and ring and bling, and it has already claimed 4 million lives in five years and broken a population the size of Britain's. No this is not only a story about them. This - the tale of a short journey into the long Congolese war we in the West have fostered, fueled and funded - is a story about you"

Click here to read entire critique.

DR Congo peacekeepers 'missing'

One Nepalese peacekeeper has been killed and another seven are missing after clashes with rebels in Democratic Republic of Congo, the UN says.

There are some reports that the troops may have been kidnapped but the UN says it cannot confirm or deny these.

The peacekeepers were trying to disarm militias in volatile eastern DR Congo.

There are some 17,000 UN troops in DR Congo - the world's largest peacekeeping force - ahead of elections due on 30 July. - BBC May 29. 2006.

Pictures of the $100 laptop: 1st working model of One Laptop Per Child (OLPC)

From May 23, 2006 blog entry by Pablo Halkyard at PSD blog - The World Bank Group:

Pictures from the unveiling of the first working prototype of the $100 Laptop at the Seven Countries Task Force today. Green became orange, and the hand-crank is gone. Compare with Intel's sub-$400 entry and AMD's $185 version.

Note, at the entry a techie commented: "Awesome. I want one. What is there to stop gringos from buying them all to have their recipes on the kitchen or to use as poolside or beach laptop?"

Click here to learn about One Laptop per Child and view pictures of original green prototype with hand crank.



Photo: 1st working model (OLPC) - taken at 11:45 AM on May 23, 2006; cameraphone upload by ShoZu - Uploaded to flickr by Pete Barr-Watson

DRC: 32 "mercenaries" arrested in Kinshasa

From IRIN report today:

Security agents in Kinshasa, capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo, arrested 32 foreigners on Tuesday for plotting a coup against the government of Joseph Kabila, Interior Minister Theophilus Mbemba said.

CAR: Thousands protest widespread violence

IRIN report May 19, 2006 - excerpt:

At least 3,000 people took to the streets of Bangui, capital of the Central African Republic, on Friday in protest against escalating violence in the country; especially in the northwest where fighting between armed raiders and the army has left up to 70,000 civilians displaced.

"For sometime now, insecurity has continued unabated in the capital as well as in provinces, especially in the northwest region," Noel Ramada, chairman of the country's largest trade union, the USTC, said. "We want peace, not violence."

The protestors carried banners that read: "No to Rebellion" and "No to Bad Governance". They urged rebels and the government to stop the fighting and to work for peace.

UN mission reports dozens of crimes by DR of Congo's soldiers

The Democratic Republic of Congo's own soldiers were responsible for the majority of the nearly seven dozen complaints of crimes and human rights violations under investigation by the United Nations mission (MONUC) for the last two months, according to a new report. - UN News Centre

EU to send peacekeepers to Congo - and agreed to prolong training and airlift to AU troops in Darfur, W Sudan

Irish Examiner 15 May 2006 says the European Union today insisted it will be ready to provide support to UN peacekeepers in Congo during elections starting in July despite difficulties in mustering the troops needed for an EU military mission.

“The EU will … be in a position to make a significant contribution to creating a more stable and secure environment during the election period,” EU foreign and defence ministers said in a Brussels statement.

The ministers also agreed to prolong the bloc's support for peacekeeping efforts in another African trouble spot, extending until at least September its limited program providing training and airlift to African Union troops in Sudan’s Darfur region.

Oxfam says deaths in DR of Congo: 100,000 in 3 months - 3.9m over past 8 years - 1,200 people are dying every day from conflict-related causes

The aid agency Oxfam has criticised donor countries for failing to tackle the humanitarian crisis in the Democratic Republic of Congo, BBC reported today:

Oxfam says donor countries have contributed only $94m (£50m) to a $682m special appeal launched in February.

It says more than 100,000 people have died in the three-month period from diseases that might have been cured.

Oxfam says DR Congo is a forgotten disaster zone in which 3.9m people have died over the past eight years.

The Humanitarian Action Plan was launched by the United Nations, the Red Cross and aid agencies in February.

It comes as the country approaches UN-backed elections in July, which will be the first democratic polls the DRC has ever held.

The BBC's World Affairs Correspondent Mark Doyle says it is unusual for aid agencies to name - and try to shame - specific countries.

But Oxfam has called the contributions of the United States and Japan "minuscule" compared with the size of their economies and said that Germany and France had committed little and Italy nothing.

The aid agency calculates what it calls "fair shares" by comparing the amount appealed for with the size of economies.

According to Oxfam, Britain gave only about half of the share it could have been expected to contribute.

But a spokesman for the Department for International Development told the BBC that the UK had pledged £60m in additional aid to the DR Congo over the next two years to help with the humanitarian situation in the country.

He said the money would go to providing emergency food and shelter, medical equipment , clean water and to rebuild schools destroyed by the conflict.

Oxfam's representative in Congo, Juliette Prodhan, said it was good that donors had agreed to help finance the forthcoming polls, but that the country's problems would not be cured by voting alone.

"Rich country governments have a moral obligation to act when 1,200 people are dying every day from conflict-related causes," she said.

After years of war and misrule, there is little infrastructure in DR Congo, which is about the size of Western Europe, and there are no road or rail links from one side of the country to the other.

Fighting - particularly in the east - continues between rival militias and government forces. Hundreds of thousands of people have been displaced from their homes.

A United Nations peacekeeping force of nearly 17,000 troops - the world's largest - operates in the country and is being augmented by a 1,500-strong European Union rapid reaction force over the election period.

DR of Congo: militia group comes forward to enter disarmament process

UN News Centre 12 May 2006 – A group of around 250 members of a renegade militia in the troubled Katanga Province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) have come forward to enter the country’s disarmament and reintegration process, the United Nations mission in the country (MONUC) said today.

Meanwhile, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported today that three months after the launch of the 2006 Action Plan for the DRC, which aims to provide relief aid and promote stability in country, the international community has met just 13 per cent of identified needs, delivering only $90 million of the $682 requested.

Uganda says most LRA rebels relocated to DR Congo

May 5 2006 Xinhua/ST report in full:

The Uganda People's Defence Force (UPDF) has said about 95 per cent of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebels in southern Sudan have relocated to eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

The UPDF 5th Division spokesman, Lt Chris Magezi, told Xinhua by telephone on Friday 5 May that most of the rebels have crossed to the DRC to join rebel leader Joseph Kony and his deputy Vincent Otti who are believed to be hiding in the jungles of Garamba National Park, eastern DRC.

"About 95 per cent of the LRA are now hiding in the DRC after our hot pursuit in southern Sudan," said Magezi.

He noted that there just a few remnants that are remaining in southern Sudan which the rebels used as their base to launch attacks against the Ugandan government, in a rebellion that has left tens of thousands of people dead.

"Our forces in southern Sudan have made major successes in wiping out these rebels. And because of our fire power, they are fleeing to the DRC," Magezi added.

UPDF spokesman, Maj Felix Kulaigye told Xinhua by telephone on Friday that Defence Minister Amama Mbabazi had returned from Sudan where he had gone to meet President Omar Al-Bashir and the UN Khartoum team to reach a regional mechanism to handle the LRA.

President Yoweri Museveni said on Thursday that there is need for the government to work in conjunction with the Sudanese government, the Sudanese People's Liberation Army and the United Nations Force in the DRC (MONUC) in ending the war in northern Uganda.

The Ugandan military said recently if Kony and his 150 armed combatants are given a safe haven in the DRC, they could build up and become a regional problem.

According to Minister Mbabazi, Uganda is to send defence and foreign affairs officials to meet the DRC authorities on how the two neighbouring countries can wipe out LRA rebels.

"It is a matter we are pushing with vigour and we are sure to receive positive reports," Mbabazi said shortly before leaving for the Khartoum meeting.

About two weeks ago, the Ugandan government proposed to the UN Security Council to allow the UPDF pursue the LRA rebels in the DRC.

Last week, the DRC government said UPDF soldiers were sighted on its territory pursuing the LRA, a thing the Ugandan army denied.

The LRA rebels have been fighting the Ugandan government for the last 20 years in a rebellion that has left tens of thousands of people dead and over 1.4 million people living in internally displaced persons camps in northern Uganda.

Sudan and DR Congo at top of 'failed states index'

Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo are the world's most vulnerable states, according to a new study.

FAILED STATES 2006 - TOP 10
1. Sudan (3)*
2. DR Congo (2)*
3. Ivory Coast (1)*
4. Iraq (4)*
5. Zimbabwe (15)*
6. Chad (7)*
(Tie) Somalia (5)*
8. Haiti (10)*
9. Pakistan (34)*
10. Afghanistan (11)*

* Position in 2005 report

The report - compiled by the US Foreign Policy magazine and the US-based Fund for Peace think-tank - ranked nations according to their viability.

Judged according to 12 criteria, including human flight and economic decline, states range from the most failed, Sudan, to the least, Norway.

Eleven of the 20 most failed states of the 146 nations examined are in Africa.

Full report BBC May 2, 2006 [Hat tip to Passion of the Present - http://www.passionofthepresent.org/ so sorry, permalinks and newsfeed to the site are still not working here]

U.S. Senators Leahy and Obama secure Key Panel's OK for aid for elections and military reform in DR Congo

"Congo Watchers--Have you seen this Press Release yet?" asks Taylor Walters in a comment here today at Congo Watch:

Senators Leahy and Obama Secure Key Panel's OK for Much-Needed Aid for Elections and Military Reform in the Democratic Republic of the Congo

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Date: April 4, 2006

Obama Contact: Robert Gibbs or Tommy Vietor, (202) 228-5511

WASHINGTON (Tuesday, April 4) -- U.S. Senators Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and Barack Obama (D-Ill.) Tuesday successfully attached an amendment to the Iraq Supplemental Appropriations bill that would provide $13.2 million for the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). The amendment was cosponsored by Senator Sam Brownback (R-Kan.), Senator Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), and Senator Mike DeWine (R-Ohio).

The amendment, drafted as part of a collaborative effort by Leahy and Obama, provides $8.2 million for military reform and $5 million to support free and fair elections in the DRC. According to the United Nations, these are two key priorities if the DRC is to make a successful transition to democratic rule and bring peace and economic development to one of the largest nations in Africa.

Obama said, "If Africa is to achieve its promise, resolving the problems in the Congo will be critical. The country, which is the size of Western Europe, lies at the geographic heart of Africa and borders every major region across the continent. If left untended, Congo's tragedy will continue to infect Africa. This amendment accepted today represents a small but important step towards bringing peace and prosperity to the Congo. I commend Senator Leahy's leadership and the Appropriations Committee on this issue"

Leahy added, "U.S. leadership to support democratic elections and reform the Congolese military will be critical if the Congo is going to overcome decades of violence and misrule. I hope this amendment, by demonstrating that the United States is serious about supporting the Congo, will encourage all nations to join in a sustained effort in the country that holds the key to stability in central Africa. The UN peacekeeping mission deserves a great deal of credit for the progress that has been made so far."

The elections, scheduled for later this year, are the first in more than four decades. They represent by far the largest elections that the UN has ever assisted, in a vast country with minimal infrastructure, few roads and an electorate of more than 25 million people. The election breakthrough is the result of years of negotiations to reduce the fighting in the DRC, which involved five international peace agreements and more than 30 UN Security Council resolutions.

The amendment represents a growing concern in Congress about the DRC's future. In December, comprehensive legislation on the Congo, S. 2125, was introduced by Senators Obama, Brownback, Durbin, and DeWine.

Telegraph Correspondent David Blair visits Docs Hospital in Goma

The Daily Telegraph's Africa Correspondent David Blair recently returned home to Johannesburg after a week long tour of eastern Congo, taking in Bunia, Beni, Goma, Gisenyi and blogging an account -- note [Hello Louis!] the April 24, 2006 blog entry for "Day Five" about his visit to Docs Hospital in Goma.

Uganda backs Revolutionary Movement of Congo (MRC)

Uganda backs rebels responsible for ravaging the rugged hills and dense rainforest of Congo's Ituri district, according to UN officials and western diplomats.

Gunmen, styling themselves the Revolutionary Movement of Congo (known by their French acronym MRC), have forced tens of thousands to flee in the last three months alone

See Telegraph report by David Blair in Bunia 27 April 2006.

Congokin.com forum - DRC

CONGOKIN: Discussion Forum

UN suspects Uganda is fighting in Congo

UN peacekeepers are investigating reports that Ugandan soldiers crossed into neighbouring Congo in pursuit of rebels on Wednesday and clashed with Congolese troops, a UN spokesman said on Thursday.

Security sources in Kinshasa said Ugandan soldiers clashed with the Congolese army near the town of Aba, in the remote northeastern frontier with Uganda and Sudan - after crossing the border to hunt down the Joseph Kony-led Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebels hiding there.

Full report Monitor Online 28 April 2006.

UN Security Council authorises European force in DR Congo

The United Nations Security Council today endorsed the deployment of a European Union reserve force in the Democratic Republic of the Congo to bolster stability in the vast country for its June 2006 presidential and parliamentary elections and up to four months afterward.

Full report UN News Centre 25 Apr 2006.

The Goma Film Project and LUMO by American blogger and film maker Louis Abelman

Great news. American blogger Louis Abelman has launched a website for The Goma Film Project showing a trailer of his first film, LUMO shot in Goma, DRC.

Louis, who authors Telegraphe Congolais, has spent the past few years producing and directing LUMO, a deeply sensitive documentary about the lives of rape survivors in war-torn Democratic Republic of Congo as they work with medical staff and counsellors to regain their health and dignity.



Louis lives in New York. After attending Brown University where he majored in African History, he worked for the International Herald Tribune as an editorial assistant and as a news assistant at the New York Times.

Several photos featured here at Congo Watch, including those here below - and in Congo Watch title banner - were shot by Louis. Links to more photos can be found in the sidebar of his blog.

The fabulous Mama Jeanne Banyere

See The savagery in the Congo is beyond imagination - excerpt:

Jeanne Banyere, or Mama Jeanne to all who know this remarkable woman. "I used to cry, but have now become more desensitised. This happens all over this area, sometimes to children as young as nine." Mama Jeanne - who also looks after 62 orphans - is one of a handful of dedicated people from the Women's Protestant Federation that network these remote parts of the Congo, providing counselling and hope to these women.

Photo: Mama Jeanne (tallest, yellow headscarf) with returned patients in village of Mema (Louis Abelman)



Photo: Close up of drawing on outer wall (Louis Abelman)

Note May 1, 2006 screening of LUMO in New York at the IFC center, further details at gomafilmproject.org.

Hague referral for Bemba and Patasse

BBC report 14 April 2006 says the top court in the Central African Republic has referred former President Felix-Ange Patasse to the International Criminal Court in The Hague.

Mr Patasse was referred, along with the vice-president of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Jean-Pierre Bemba, on charges of rape and murder.

Also included in the referral are a French policeman and two aides of ex-president Mr Patasse.

Security Council approves UN troop redeployment from Burundi to DR Congo

The Security Council today authorized the temporary redeployment of peacekeepers from the Organization's operation in Burundi (ONUB) to its mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (MONUC) to strengthen security and oversight for the upcoming Congolese elections. Full story UN News Centre 10 Apr 2006.

The EU's strategy for Africa

EU aid means the difference between life and death for many Africans, argues Louis Michel:

"For all of them, "Europe cares", Europeans care. It is important to remember that when people in our countries express doubts about European integration and the added value of the EU - this is added value. For millions of people, our aid makes the difference between life and death."

- 40m euro programme for Sudan
- 38m euros for Democratic Republic of Congo
- Major programmes to help drought victims in the Horn of Africa, the Great Lakes refugees living in camps in Tanzania, the frightened communities of Northern Uganda and the many highly vulnerable people still struggling to survive in Burundi and Liberia in the aftermath of long-running conflicts.

Full story at EUPolitix.com.

Swedish soldiers to join EU Congo force

April 9 Xinhua -- Sweden is to send 40 to 50 soldiers to the Democratic Republic of Congo, which will be part of an EU mission to provide security during the summer election in the troubled central African country, local media reported on Sunday.

Defense minister Leni Bjoerklund told Social Democrats on Saturday that the government would put the proposal for the Swedish contribution before parliament soon, according to Swedish news agency TT.

The EU force of around 1,000 soldiers from ten countries will support 17,000 UN peacekeeping troops. Eight UN soldiers have lost their lives in the country.

The election in the DR Congo will be the first since 1961. It was scheduled for June 18th but has been postponed until July due to security fears.

The exact task of Swedish soldiers from the elite Special Protection Group (SSG) in DR Congo is still not clear, the report said.

The SSG, which reports directly to the Commander-in-Chief of the Swedish armed forces, is trained for battle, personal protection, intelligence gathering and a range of other combat duties.

Sweden's contribution will cost a maximum of 60 million kronor (about 7.7 million U.S. dollars), according to the report.

France asks UN to redeploy troops to DRCongo

April 7, 2006 (AFP) - France on Friday proposed that the Security Council redeploy UN troops from Burundi to bolster a mission in the DRC during elections:

France circulated a draft resolution that would transfer an infantry battalion, a field hospital and 50 military observers from the UN mission in Burundi, to the mission in RDC, until July 1, with the possibility of extending the redeployment. The proposal would redeploy more than 800 UN troops now in Burundi under Resolution 1650.

Burundi has been trying to leave behind 12 years of civil war and is governed by elected officials after a long political transition. The UN mission there was deployed in 2004 and has nearly completed its mission, foreseen to end on December 31.

The RDC has set elections for later this year, before the end of a fragile political transition that began in 2003 after several years of warfare. Election day, initially set for June 18, has been put off for logistical reasons and a new date has not yet been set.

�WFP airpdrops food aid into DR Congo's embattled Katanga province

The United Nations World Food Programme said today it had started dropping food aid from an aircraft into violence-wracked Katanga province in the southeast of the Democratic Republic of Congo – marking the agency's first food aid airdrops outside Sudan since 1998.

The airdrops of WFP food from an Antonov-12 aircraft near the town of Dubie in Katanga started on Wednesday and are the first ever into the DRC, where WFP usually transports food aid by trucks and airlifts. But the current rains have made it especially difficult to move by road sufficient amounts of food aid to Dubie, where malnutrition rates are increasingly alarming.

Full report UNWFP via ReliefWeb 7 Apr 2006.

World Food Program sends aid to refugees in DRC

The World Food Program (WFP) began to dispatch aid to refugees in Katanga province of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) on Wednesday, a WFP official told Xinhua.

Aline Samu, who is responsible for WFP press information, told Xinhua that about 12 tons of aid had been sent to 13,000 refugees in Dubie, 500 km north from Lubumbashi, capital of Katanga province, adding that another two rounds would arrive on Thursday.

According to the UN Peacekeeping Mission in the DRC (MONUC), a total of 80 tons of aid will be dispatched to the region in the following four to five days.

Samu admitted that the transportation cost climbed to 1,200 U.S. dollars per ton because of the awfully bumpy roads to the region, noting that only 530 tons of food supplies were sent to Katanga from January to March due to road conditions.

The fighting between the Mayi-Mayi militia and the national Army Forces of the DRC in Katanga had forced about 11,000 families to leave their homes since the end of 2005.

Sudan's Darfur, DRC top agenda at Annan's talks in NY

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan held separate talks in New York March 31 with top African and European officials on Darfur, Sudan, and the DRC, UN News Centre reported 31 Mar 2006:

In a meeting with Mr Konare, Chair of the AU Commission, the two discussed the Abuja peace talks aimed at ending the conflict in Sudan’s Darfur. They also discussed support for the AU force in Darfur, including the possibility of a donors' conference.

On the DRC, they reviewed a number of issues, including how to ensure an inclusive electoral progress.

Mr Konare, who travels to the DRC next week, also spoke with Mr Annan about the Chad-Sudan border, and steps being taken to defuse the tension there.

Darfur and the DRC were also on the agenda at a separate meeting between Mr Annan and European Common Foreign and Security Policy High Representative Javier Solana. They reviewed EU support for the AU force in Darfur and for the electoral process in the DRC.

Congo Caritas Development sends urget humanitarian aid to refugees in DRC

Urgent humanitarian aid has been sent to war refugees in the DRC. The aid, totaling 360 tons of food, medication and seeds, would be dispatched to around 30,000 people from 5,000 families in Mitwaba, 500 km north of Lubumbashi, the capital of Katanga province, said the Congo Caritas Development (CCD), a member of Caritas Internationalis on Monday.

According to the CCD, the displacement of the refugees is caused by fighting between the Mayi-Mayi militia and the national Army Forces of DRC (FARDC) since the end of 2005, which forced about 11,000 families to leave their homes. The CCD will also dispatch aid to another 5,800 families in the regions of Pweto-Mwenge and Pweto-Kizabi in a month. - Xinhua 4 Apr 2006.

World letting DRC down: UN

Violence and curable diseases are now estimated to kill around 1,200 people every day in DRC, up from a daily 1,100 in 2005.

DRC: Civilians seek refuge near UN military camp to escape fighting

At least 1,000 residents of two villages in the DRC northeastern district of Ituri sought refuge on Wednesday around a camp of Bangladeshi UN troops following fighting between militiamen and the national army, an official of the UN Mission in the DRC (MONUC) said. Full report (IRIN) Mar 29 2006.

Congo rebel group says it will go to polls

Congo's biggest former rebel group said on Friday it would end its boycott of the huge country's peace process and contest elections in June, reports IOL Kinshasa March 25 2006:

Azarias Ruberwa's RCD-Goma, backed by neighbouring Rwanda during Congo's devastating 1998-2003 war, said he would stand for president on June 18 in the country's first free national parliamentary and presidential polls in more than four decades.

"I have already been designated as presidential candidate by the party," Ruberwa told reporters in the capital Kinshasa, saying he would lodge his nomination papers in the next few days.

The announcement follows weeks of wrangling within the transitional government over the allocation of parliamentary seats in the territory formerly controlled by RCD-Goma, which still enjoys widespread support and influence in the area.

RCD-Goma had suspended its participation in all transitional institutions and cast doubt on whether it would take part in the June elections.

Ruberwa met United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan who visited Congo this week to encourage preparations for the elections and ensure all parties take part in the polls.

A statement from RCD-Goma acknowledged Annan's mediation role but said the dispute over constituencies had not yet been resolved and it would not rule out further protest action.

An RCD-Goma boycott could seriously jeopardise the credibility and organisation of elections in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo, where militia still operate and aid workers say 1,000 people are being killed every day, mainly through hunger and disease.

An estimated 4 million people have died as a result of the conflict since 1998.

The United Nations has its biggest peacekeeping operation in Congo, and the European Union plans to send troops to help safeguard the elections.

New website for friends of the DR Congo

Email just in introducing new website for Friends of the Congo. Good luck and best wishes to all concerned.

Museveni braces to fight Ugandan rebels in DR Congo

Ugandan president Yoweri Museveni has reiterated his warning to pursue rebels of the Lord`s Resistance Army (LRA) in northern DR Congo where they have reportedly gathered to attack Uganda, reported AngolaPress March 24, 2006. Excerpt:

"We will pursue the LRA rebels into the DRC if they launch attacks on any part of Uganda, with or without approval of the international authorities. Uganda had a right to self-defence under international law," Museveni warned in an interview published in the state-owned Sunday Vision.

The repeated threat but the strongest follows reports by Uganda army that LRA leader Joseph Kony, crossed into north-eastern DR Congo last week to join his loyal deputy, Major-General Vicent Otti, who is holed up in the Gramba game reserve.

The Uganda Peoples Defence Forces (UPDF) claimed that LRA rebels have found jungles in north-eastern DRC, particularly the Garamba game reserve, a new sanctuary for them to re-group, re-organise and freshly attack Uganda since they were flushed out of their rear bases in southern Sudan.

In a related development, UN envoy Dennis McNamara has described the rebel war in northern Uganda as a shame to the Museveni regime, the international community and the United Nations.

"Twenty years is so long, we have failed the people in the north. They are crowded in camps without being protected. This is a huge challenge nationally and internationally," McNamara told a news conference here Friday.

"The conflict is one of the world`s most serious humanitarian crises, with crude mortality rates among displaced children which are higher than those prevailing in Darfur [western Sudan], and three times more than the rest of Uganda."

"You cannot achieve peace and security when you militarise the whole area when civilians have to be at the front and the military at the back.

"Even in peacekeeping missions like Darfur, they don`t keep the military at the front, McNamara said.

There should be a collaborative effort to ensure that peace returns to the region," added McNamara, at the end of a weeklong multi-donor mission in Kampala.

But Uganda army and Defence spokesman, Major Felix Kulayigye responded to McNamara`s remarks indifferently, saying, "A military situation requires a military action".

"In a war situation there is no law and order. You cannot resort to peaceful means. Agreeably we have had our weaknesses, but we have learnt lessons and addressed these weaknesses," Kulayigye told journalists.

Press conference by Special Representative of Secretary-General for Burundi

Press conference by Special Representative of Secretary-General for Burundi.

Source: United Nations Operation in Burundi (ONUB) 22 Mar 2006, courtesy ReliefWeb.

Number of refugees: Sudan 5m - DRC 3m - Uganda 2m

African leaders bear much of the responsibility for the continent's 12 million people living in poverty in their own countries after being driven from their homes, a senior United Nations official said on Wednesday, Reuters reported March 22, 2006. Excerpt:

Under-Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs Jan Egeland was speaking at the launch of a report showing that last year Africa accounted for half of the world's "internal refugees" and Zimbabwe alone for nearly a third of the 2 million new ones.

"The African leadership has been horrendous in the last generation in so many of these situations, and they have to face the truth," Egeland, former head of Norway's Red Cross, told a news conference.

The Norwegian report, "Internal Displacement: Global View of Trends and Developments in 2005", said Sudan with 5 million remained the country with most internal refugees, and numbers were swelling further because of the conflict in Darfur.

Uganda, which Egeland said he planned to visit shortly, had 2 million internal refugees, almost all in the north of the country where a rebel Lord's Resistance Army has created havoc for years and regularly raids camps for the displaced.

The DRC still had 1.7 million, and there were 1.3 million in Iraq, many of them left over from population movements enforced under the regime of Saddam Hussein ousted by a U.S.-led invasion three years ago.

The Norwegian report is available at www.internal-displacement.org.

DR Congo rebel Thomas Lubanga due in Hague court

The leader of a Democratic Republic of Congo militia is set to become the first war crimes suspect to be charged at the International Criminal Court.

Thomas Lubanga was transferred to ICC custody on Friday from DR Congo.

The court, based in the Dutch city of The Hague, said he would face three charges related to the use of children in armed groups.

Full story (BBC) 20 March 2006.

Note, the report states Thomas Lubanga's UPC has been battling for control of Ituri's gold. Read On the trail of DR Congo's 'cursed' gold.

Congo hands militia chief to Hague court - UN source

Excerpt from Reuters report today:

The Congolese government is handing over a militia leader suspected of ordering the killing of nine Bangladeshi peacekeepers last year to the International Criminal Court, a U.N. source said on Friday.

The case would be the first dealt with by the world's first permanent global war crimes court to try individuals.

The U.N. source in Congo, who asked not to be named, said Thomas Lubanga, leader of the Union of Congolese Patriots (UPC) ethnic militia in eastern Congo's lawless Ituri district, was being transferred to the ICC headquarters in The Hague.

ICC officials in The Hague declined to comment.

The ICC issued its first warrants last year for five leaders of Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), which also operates in northeast Congo, and has launched investigations into war crimes in Congo and Sudan's Darfur region.

DR Congo rebel Thomas Lubanga faces Hague trial

The UN force in DR Congo is the biggest in the world. The leader of a DRC militia group is to be sent to the world court over the killing of UN troops, a Congolese human rights group says Voice of the Voiceless, reported BBC Mar 17, 2006. Excerpt:

Thomas Lubanga was arrested a year ago after nine Bangladeshi United Nations peacekeepers were killed in the volatile north-eastern Ituri region.

This would be the first case dealt with by the International Criminal Court (ICC) in the Dutch city of the Hague.

The ICC was set up to deal with war crimes and genocide around the world.

Mr Lubanga was brought out of his jail in the capital, Kinshasa, by the Congo military on Thursday and informed that he will be judged by the ICC, according to Congolese human rights group Voice of the Voiceless.

Mr Lubanga is accused of having ordered the killing of the peacekeepers in February 2005 and of being behind continuous insecurity in the area.

Several teams of ICC investigators have been sent to Ituri in recent months where more than 50,000 people have died since the inter-ethnic war began in 1999.

Thomas Lubanga's ethnic Hema Union of Congolese Patriots has been battling their Lendu rivals, partly for control of Ituri's large deposits of gold.

Some 17,000 UN peacekeepers are in DR Congo, tasked with ensuring that elections planned for June go smoothly.

They have been backing up the Congolese army as it conducts raids against the numerous rebel groups based in the east.

Uganda: Kony Joins Otti in eastern DRC?

allAfrica.com report March 16, 2006 by F. Ahimbisibwe (New Vision, Kampala)

THE Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) chief, Joseph Kony, has joined his deputy Vincent Otti in the Garamba National Park in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Kony left his hideout in southern Sudan on Tuesday with over 70 soldiers, according to the army sources.

Army spokesman Major Felix Kulayigye yesterday said the army had confirmed that Kony had crossed, prompting the UPDF to reinforce deployment at Uganda's border with the DRC.

"We have stepped up security and we are on high alert although Kony and his men are weakened. We do not want to take chances. We have to ensure that our people at the border are safe," he said.

Kulayigye said they had alerted the DRC authorities and the United Nations to disarm or arrest the rebels.

"Since we are not allowed to cross over and hunt them down, we have alerted DRC authorities to find them and annihilate them wherever they may be hiding," he said.

13,000 Sudanese refugees in DR Congo

UN refugee worker killed in Sudan, reports the BBC March 16, 2006:

Two gunmen attacked an office of the UN refugee agency in southern Sudan, killing a local guard and wounding two workers, the agency says.

The UNHCR said it was still seeking more details about the attack in the southern town of Yei.

Following the attack, the planned return of refugees in Democratic Republic of Congo has been suspended. The UNHCR says there are still 350,000 Sudanese refugees in neighbouring countries follwing a 21-year war. More than 13,000 refugees are in DR Congo.

The two wounded UNHCR employees are being treated in hospital in the southern capital, Juba, before being airlifted in Nairobi, Kenya.

UN High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres said the attack was a "shocking" event.

DR Congo peace force may get EU backup

Sapa-AP report from Brussels Mar 6, 2006 excerpt:

European Union (EU) defence ministers will seek to flesh out plans today to send an EU military force to back United Nations (UN) peacekeepers in the Democratic Republic of Congo as the country prepares for presidential elections.

The defence ministers, meeting in Innsbruck, Austria, also will review plans for EU states to pool a small part of their defence budgets for co-operative research - a move critics have denounced as a threat to national control over military affairs.

The possibility of increased European assistance to the faltering international peacekeeping mission in Sudan, led by the African Union, would feature during the two-day meeting, EU officials said.

A request from the UN for European troops to bolster the 16000-strong mission in Congo has underscored the EU's difficulties in building up its own effective military capability.

Previous attempts to establish a rapid reaction, combined EU force have failed.

Although the plan entails only a few hundred, highly mobile troops able to rush to potential trouble spots for a few months, in this instance as Congo holds its elections, the EU has struggled to find states willing to lead or contribute to the force.

At a meeting of EU foreign ministers last week, diplomats said France, Germany, Sweden and Belgium had stepped forward to lead a possible force in Congo, although some were insisting on strict conditions on how their troops could be used.

Officials were hoping for firmer offers to come from the Innsbruck meeting, although they said much would depend on a debate expected later in the month in the German parliament on the possible deployment of German troops.

EU officials in Brussels said options under discussion included the deployment of 200-450 European soldiers to the Congolese capital, Kinshasa, ahead of the June 18 presidential election.

Up to 800 additional troops would be held on standby outside Congo ready for rapid intervention if there is trouble.

Rev. Theodore Ngoy holes up in SA's DRC embassy

A DR of Congo opposition leader who was arrested in December has escaped from custody and sought sanctuary in the South African embassy, reports The Star March 2, 2006:

Father Theodore Ngoy, a candidate in the presidential election planned for June, told reporters yesterday he had slipped his police guard and fled to the embassy after making a court appearance.

He said he was seeking political asylum from South Africa because of his "imprisonment and bad treatment" in police custody since his arrest on December 29 for allegedly insulting the head of state. Full story.

Update Mar 7: Thanks to Congo Watch reader The Malau for pointing out it is Rev. Theodore Ngoy, and not Father. He is an evangelical/pentecostal/non-denominational pastor.

DR of Congo: peacekeepers help army against rebels

United Nations press release via Scoop 2 March 2006:

In the second military operation this week of its kind, some 300 United Nations peacekeepers, backed by helicopter gunships, are helping the army of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) dislodge militia said to have been looting and enslaving locals in the eastern region of the vast country.

The UN Mission in the DRC (MONUC) reported today that Congolese troops have been fighting for the past six days to dislodge the militia members from the town of Tchei, some 60 kilometres south-east of the Ituri region's main town, Bunia. The blue helmets involved come from MONUC's Pakistani, Bangladeshi and Moroccan contingents.

On Monday, the mission announced that another 300 'blue helmets,' also backed by combat helicopters, were helping the army further south to drive out rebels from neighbouring Rwanda, where they have been operating for the past 10 years in the heavily forested area north of Bukavu, the main city of the South Kivu region.

"MONUC is intervening to bring security to the region and assure the protection of the civilian population," the mission said in a statement on that operation against Hutu rebels of the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR).

The Hutus moved across the border in the aftermath of the 1994 Rwandan genocide of Tutsis and moderate Hutus by extremist Hutus, in which 800,000 people are estimated to have died.

The operations were the latest in recent months in which MONUC has played a more active role in seeking to bring stability to the eastern DRC as the country prepares to hold national elections in June to cement its transition from a six-year civil war that cost 4 million lives through fighting and the attendant humanitarian catastrophe - the most lethal conflict in the world since World War II.

UN peacekeepers, govt troops attack rebel groups in DRC

Via Xinhuanet March 2, 2006:

UN peacekeepers and government troops of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) launched an attack against rebel groups in the eastern region to pave the way for the country's upcoming June elections, said a UN special mission spokesman on Wednesday.

In the operation, which is aimed at creating a stable environment for the country's first elections in more than 40 years, UN peacekeepers and government troops fought on two fronts.

One was in the northeastern Ituri region, where about 500 blue-helmets (UN troops), and 2,500 government troops fought with an unknown number of militia, said the spokesman.

The UN and government troops used over 40 armored cars and several fighter and transport helicopters to fight the militia, who have used the region as a base for attacking and robbing civilians.

Another 300 Pakistani blue-helmets and 1,000 government troops fought with anti-government militia in the eastern province of Sud-kivu and set up outposts to keep Rwandan anti-government forces from spreading in the region.

The DRC, formerly Zaire, is rich in minerals but is still suffering from the effects of its last war, from 1998 to 2003, which left nearly 4 million people dead, mostly from disease and hunger.

The war officially ended in 2003, but bands of gunmen, who have refused to disarm, continue to terrorize civilians in large areas of the country, particularly in the lawless but mineral-rich eastern region. Enditem

38,000 people die every month in Congo's continuing conflict: ICG

Source: Xinhua People's Daily Online 26 Feb 2006:

The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) remains a humanitarian disaster despite the presence of UN troops and the recent approval of a new constitution that paved the way for elections in April, said a report from a think tank on Saturday.

As many as 38,000 people continue to die every month as a result of the ongoing conflict in the central African country, while the world's attention has been focused instead on the conflicts in Sudan's Darfur region and Cote d'Ivoire said the latest report issued from the Washington-based International Crisis Group.

Most of the deaths result from malnutrition and easily preventable diseases such as fever, malaria and diarrhea, which turn deadly because insecurity restricts access to basic infrastructure and sanitation, it said.

The report said poor relations between the DRC, Rwanda and Uganda have heightened tensions and made resolution of the respective conflicts more difficult.

The DRC still hosts many militia groups often backed by outside powers and interests, and its mineral wealth and weak border controls have allowed many of these to become self-sustaining. The economy is in tatters, and ethnic and regional fault-lines are both many and deep, it said.

Insecurity is prevalent throughout the country, with the population destitute and exposed to high rates of crime. In many larger towns and cities, protests and riots may erupt in response to the failure of the transitional government, which came to being in July 2003, when Joseph Kabila remained the president, joined by four vice-presidents representing the former government, former rebel groups and the political opposition, according to the report.

South Sudanese in "LRA Triangle" flee Ugandan LRA rebels

Coalition for Darfur points us to a Sapa-AFP report 24 Feb 2006 that claims deadly raids by the LRA have forced scores of villagers in southern Sudan to flee their homes to spend nights in the bush fearing abductions and killings, a German humanitarian group has said. Excerpt:

The insurgents have been carrying out raids in vast southern Sudan belt called the "LRA Triangle" which lies between Rasola town near the DR Congo border, the region's capital Juba and Lokukei town near the Ugandan border.

"The threat imposed by the LRA forces the local population to leave the village during the night to hide in the bush," said Klaus Stieglitz, the deputy director of Sign of Hope.

Last week, LRA fighters attacked villages around Rajef, 12 kilometres south of Juba and brutally hacked to death three people, including a 70-year-old man and looted cassava farmland, the group said.

"It is a shame that these people nearly feel like animals. They are in fact deprived of their human dignity," he said after touring villagers around Rejaf and Nimule outposts in southern Sudan, where the group delivered humanitarian support.

In areas outlying Nimule, about 150 kilometres southeast of Juba, the insurgents have abducted at least 92 people, including children, and villagers believe that most of them are still held by the ruthless insurgents, they said.

"The villagers told us they can identify the attackers as the LRA because of the ethnic Acholi accent in their language," Stieglitz told a press conference in Nairobi. Sapa-AFP

Annan welcomes DR of Congo's new legal framework

Press Release: United Nations via Scoop 23 February 2006:

Secretary-General Kofi Annan today welcomed the new Constitution and electoral laws of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), where the United Nations is helping to organize one of the biggest polls in which it has ever participated.

"These steps mark important milestones in the history of the Democratic Republic of the Congo," Mr. Annan said in a statement released by his spokesman.

"The Secretary-General looks forward to the early publication by the Independent Electoral Commission of an electoral calendar providing for the timely holding of free, fair and transparent elections," the spokesman added, pledging all possible UN support for the elections and the Congolese peace process as a whole.

In December, about 25 million Congolese registered to vote in a referendum to endorse the Constitution, paving the way for the country's first free elections in more than four decades and one of the biggest polls - with 36,000 vote offices and nearly 200,000 electoral agents - in which the UN has participated.

Rwandan genocide feature film and blog: Shooting Dogs

Further to Congo Watch blog entry Jan 20 re Rwandan genocide feature film Shooting Dogs, it now looks likely that BBC Films and the UK Film Council are releasing the film on March 31, 2006.

[Via Coalition for Darfur with thanks]

Forbes' list of the world's most corrupt countries includes DR Congo, Sudan, Chad, Nigeria, Kenya

ComingAnarchy.com publishes Forbes' list of the world's most corrupt countries and notes 9 of the 16 countries are in Africa. DR Congo is one of them. Here is the list, in no particular order:

Chad
Bangladesh
Turkmenistan
Myanmar (aka Burma)
Haiti
Nigeria
Equatorial Guinea
Ivory Coast
Angola
Tajikistan
Sudan
Somalia
Paraguay
Pakistan
Kenya
DR Congo

1,200 people die every day as result of conflict in DRC: UN confirms 6 ex-rebels die of hunger

Photo: Mai Mai fighters are being integrated into the army - BBC report 17 Feb 2006:

Six former rebels who were being integrated into the Democratic Republic of Congo's army have died of hunger, the United Nations has confirmed.

The ex-Mai Mai fighters were at a training camp in Kamina in the east.

The UN says it has repeatedly protested that rations and payments are not reaching ex-rebels in training centres.

Under the terms of the 2002 peace deal, rebel militia are being integrated into the army as the country prepares for elections to be held by June.

Eighteen army brigades are supposed to be fully trained by the middle of this year, but the UN says that so far only six are fully functional.

Some 17,000 UN peacekeepers are in DR Congo in the lead-up to parliamentary and presidential polls due in April, in what will be DR Congo's first national multi-party elections for four decades.

A possible presidential run-off will take place in early June.

Conflict is still continuing in the east, where bands of militia groups still terrorise civilians and use the rich minerals and timber of the region to finance their operations.

The Mai Mai militiamen were a nationalist Congolese government reserve in the east of the country

Several neighbouring countries - including Rwanda and Uganda - were drawn into DR Congo's brutal conflict which led to some 3m deaths.

The BBC's World Affairs correspondent Mark Doyle says the Mai Mai are fiercely nationalistic and implacably anti-Rwanda.

On Monday, the UN humanitarian chief Jan Egeland said the after-effects of the five-year conflict were responsible for the deaths of some 1,200 people every day.

Kiva: Loans that change lives, become a lender to a small business in Africa

Kiva website states it provides a new, sponsor a business option for individuals to connect with small enterprises in developing countries through flexible loans and invites readers to become a lender to a small business in Africa and be reimbursed for the loan.

Sounds like a good initiative. Not sure how it all works. According to the website, Kiva is experiencing a huge outpouring of support and cannot list businesses fast enough. Excerpt:

"Latest journal from Peace Poultry Tororo, Uganda , January 3, 2006: This business has received loan money worth $300. The money has already been put in business to increase the stock."

Source: Trey's blog.

UN says won't support Congo army if abuses continue

United Nations peacekeepers will stop fighting alongside Congolese government forces if they continue to commit human rights violations during operations, the world body said on 8 Feb 2006.

The U.N. mission began documenting army abuses after government soldiers killed two people suspected of being militiamen in December, hacking off their limbs and burning their remains in the middle of a town in north-eastern Congo.

UK-based Amnesty International on Wednesday also called for the government, as well as rebels and militia groups that continue to operate in eastern Congo three years after the end of a civil war, to be held accountable for abuses.

NATIONAL ARMY

As Democratic Republic of Congo prepares for elections due by the end of June, U.N. peacekeepers are arming, supporting and fighting alongside poorly paid and ill-equipped government soldiers in an attempt to pacify the lawless east.

Under peace deals that ended Congo's five-year war, tens of thousands of fighters from a plethora of rebel factions, militia groups and units loyal to Kinshasa's government were supposed to be integrated into a cohesive national army.

But just a handful of integrated brigades have been set up and all units are poorly paid, lack training and discipline and have virtually no equipment or logistical support.

Amnesty International said the failure to build a unified army was contributing to instability in the east, where access to resources and ethnic conflicts continue to fuel violence.

Civilians have been complaining for some time of abuses by soldiers, particularly after the United Nations transported hundreds of Congolese troops late last year into the remote town of Aba, where Ugandan Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebels were thought to be based.

"The U.N. brought the soldiers to chase away the LRA rebels. But we now want them back as they were not as bad as these guys who are raping and stealing," one resident told Reuters by phone from the remote province, which borders Sudan.

Congo is due to hold elections by the middle of this year but ongoing insecurity is threatening the process and, experts say, killing 1,000 people daily on top of the 4 million thought to have died from war-related hunger and disease since 1998.

Full report (Reuters) by David Lewis.

Ugandan LRA terrorist group chief Joseph Kony flees Southern Sudan into DR Congo

See Sudan Watch One of the world's most wanted men: Ugandan LRA terrorist group chief Joseph Kony flees Southern Sudan into DR Congo - UN calls NGOs into Kony hunt.

Songs by child soldiers in DRC's Aveba disarmament camp

Save the Children UK journalist Suzanne Fisher recently travelled to the Aveba Transit Camp, a disarmament camp in the Democratic Republic of Congo that helps children who have been associated with armed groups.

Suddenly she found a group of children started to sing. They were not members of a choir and had no formal musical training but knew the same songs and performed them in perfect five part harmony for Suzanne, who had basic recording equipment with her. Here are links to the recordings of those songs.

UK grad student Jennifer of Soldier Child rightly describes it as a truly remarkable recording. Please listen to video clip and tell me you don't care.



More recordings and info at Save the Children UK 25 January 2006.

Read Suzanne Fisher's Staff Diary published 2005.

UN WFP Emergency Report 27 Jan 2006 re DR Congo

UN World Food Programme Emergency Report 27 January 2006 re DR Congo:

(a) The security situation was extremely volatile in areas located at 50 - 100 km south of Bunia. Violent clashes between government troops and militias from Forces de Resistance Patriotique en Ituri (FRPI) occurred throughout the week. The violence caused massive movements of displaced people to several locations near Bunia (Bogoro, Kotoni, Marabo, and Zumbe). In Kotoni, over 403 displaced households (some 2,800 persons) were assisted with 16 tons of WFP food by Cooperating Partner (CP) German Agro Action (GAA).

(b) In another incident, on 23 January, eight UN peacekeepers were killed and five others injured during a four hour exchange of fire with armed people in the Garamba National Park, near the borders of Sudan and Uganda.

(c) Since 19 January, insecurity has worsened in North Kivu province. Violent clashes between dissident and loyalists troops took place in Rutshuru and between governmental troops and untamed militias. According to the CP Solidarite, more than 17,000 people have been displaced to areas in the northeast of Butembo. In addition, over 10,000 people are reported to have crossed into Uganda.

(d) In South Kivu province, Government troops focused on ousting Front Démocratique pour la Liberation du Rwanda (FDLR) from the Bukavu-Mwenga axis. From the forest in which they hide, FDLR militias raided several villages under the government troops' protection. In addition to the long history of armed violence, the population in Ruzizi Plain are adversely affected by drought that lasted from September to end November. Production of staple food including corn, sorghum and beans was insufficient. WFP and FAO are considering the distribution of seeds and seeds protection food packages, provision of WFP safety net rations to families of malnourished children, rehabilitation of the irrigation system in the area through food for work activities and a reforestation programme.

(e) In Maniema province, WFP's cooperating partner Action de la Cooperation Technique pour le developpement (ACTED) is planning to start therapeutic and supplementary feeding programmes in Kabambare in early February 2006. A nutritional survey carried out by ACTED in March 2005 found global acute malnutrition (GAM) rate as high as 14.8 percent. The area of Kabambare, 400 km from Kindu, received no assistance for a lengthy period of due to poor road conditions. According to ACTED, about 1,500 people may need food assistance under the nutritional programme.

(f) In Bunia (Ituri district), WFP released 74 tons of food, including 56 tons to GAA for displaced persons and other groups at high risk. Between 12 and 20 January, WFP provided 230 tons of food to 26,600 internally displaced persons (IDPs) on the Beni-Oicha-Eringeti axis through CP Lutheran World Federation (LWF). In Uvira (South Kivu province), WFP provided three-month food packages for 1,000 returnees resettled by UNCHR in Uvira and Baraka.

UN urged by Uganda to rout out LRA from Sudan, DRC

Today, China's Xinhua reports the Ugandan government has appealed to the UN and the international community to rally behind its efforts to rout out the rebels currently hiding in Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

According to a report from the Uganda Broadcasting Corporation (UBC) Radio on Sunday, the call was made by Ugandan Foreign Minister Sam Kutesa at the UN Security Council meeting.

Kutesa told the meeting that a group of Ugandan rebels continue to terrorize innocent people in northern Uganda, Sudan and the DRC.

3 killed in DR Congo army base attack 60 mls north of Goma

29 Jan 2006 Sapa-AFP report says three people were killed and seven others wounded after a group of unknown assailants attacked an army installation in the volatile eastern region of the Democratic Republic of Congo, a UN official told AFP.

The official said soldiers of the Armed Forces of the DRC (FARDC) killed three attackers and sustained the seven injuries on their side during the ensuing battle with the assailants who raided the army headquarters in Rutshuru, some 100 kilometres (60 miles) north of Goma.

Congo President Holds First Peace Meeting

This blog should be named Congo(s) Watch. Please note the Democratic Republic of Congo, also known as DR Congo or DRC is not the same place as the Republic of the Congo. See DRC and the Congo on map here in sidebar. This blog mainly concentrates on the humanitarian crisis in DRC.

However the President of Republic of Congo has just been appointed head of the African Union. The Washington Post reports today that 'Denis Sassou-Nguesso launched his role as a top African peace mediator on Sunday, meeting with the prime minister of civil war-divided Ivory Coast days after taking over as African Union head.'

Note, the report points out the OAU was disbanded in 2002 after 39 years because it was widely considered an ineffective talking shop. For the last three years, Sassou-Nguesso has also headed the Central African Economic Community, or CEMAC.

Uganda tells UN it wants to fight rebels in E Congo too

The Ugandan military is ready to "deal with" rebels in neighboring Congo who killed eight U.N. soldiers this week, President Yoweri Museveni said on Thursday.

"We told the UN they should allow us to go and deal with them in [Eastern} Congo, because we know how to fight those criminals," Museveni said during celebrations at an airfield marking two decades since his National Resistance Movement seized power.

"They didn't listen to us," he added.

"The other day I saw (the LRA) had killed some of their people ... We are ready, if the Congolese government and the UN want us to deal with that issue, we shall deal with it."

He thanked the Sudanese government and former rebels of the Sudan People's Liberation Army for letting Ugandan troops operate in southern Sudan, where the LRA has hideouts.

Full report CNN Jan 26, 2006.



Photo: Workers in Uganda Tuesday offload caskets holding bodies of UN peacekeepers killed in East Congo. (AFP/CNN)

UN demands justice for Congo peacekeeper killers

The UN Security Council on Wednesday denounced the killing of eight U.N. soldiers in Congo this week and pressed Congo's government to quickly bring the attackers to justice, reports Reuters Jan 25, 2006:

Eight Guatemalan peacekeepers were killed and five seriously wounded on Monday in a battle with rebels from neighboring Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army or LRA.

They were among about 80 Guatemalan soldiers who came under attack during a reconnaissance mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo's Garamba National Park, on the border with Sudan.

"The LRA have conducted a long-running and vicious insurgency in northern Uganda which has caused the death, abduction and displacement of thousands of innocent civilians in Uganda, Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo," the council said in a unanimous statement.

It called on Congo's transitional government "immediately to take all necessary measures to bring to justice those responsible for this attack."

U.N. Congo peacekeepers retreat

The UN Mission in the DRC, known by its French acronym MONUC, said Tuesday the Garamba Park operation was canceled and peacekeepers taken to the city of Kisangani, reports United Press International Jan 24, 2006:

Maj. Gen. Patrick Cammaert, division commander for peacekeepers in eastern Congo who was visiting UN World HQ in New York, told reporters Tuesday the remaining peacekeepers were extracted by helicopter from the scene of the battle.

The mission said local authorities estimated 50,000 internally displaced people were sheltered in churches and schools.

President of Congo (Brazzaville) to succeed Obasanjo as AU chair - diplomatic sources

See Sudan Watch Sudan withdraws candidacy for AU presidency.

UN says 8 peacekeepers killed in eastern Congo

Eight Guatemalan special forces soldiers deployed as U.N. peacekeepers in eastern Congo were killed and five wounded in a battle with Ugandan rebels on Monday in the second deadliest attack on the UN force.

The force, known as MONUC, said 80 Guatemalans had been on a reconnaissance mission for the past 10 days in Congo's Garamba National Park, on the border with Sudan, looking for members of neighboring Uganda's rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA)."

Full story GOMA, Congo (Reuters) 23 Jan 2006.

Thousands flee clashes between DRC troops, militia

From a report by SAPA, 19 Jan, 2006 [via Coalition for Darfur with thanks]:

An offensive by troops in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) against militia armies in the volatile east has driven 122,000 people from their homes, the United Nations mission in the DRC (Monuc) said on Wednesday.

'A new wave of 46,000 people has been displaced since November 2005 in districts of Nord-Katanga which are still the theatre of military operations against armed groups roaming the region, bringing the total number of displaced persons to 122,000,' Monuc deputy spokesperson Eliana Naaba said.

Much further north, an armed gang loyal to a renegade general on Wednesday attacked an army position at Runyonyi in Nord-Kivu province, according to the local military commander, Colonel Jean-Marie She Kasikila, who accused Rwandan troops of backing the rebels."

Blogging Rwandan genocide feature film Shooting Dogs

Today, Congo Watch received an email from a new blog called Shooting Dogs about a film starring John Hurt. The film is called Shooting Dogs and tells the story of what happened at the Ecole Technique Officielle during the Rwandan genocide.

Note this excerpt from post by David Belton the film's producer who gained a BAFTA nomination for his work:

Tom asks, "Do you think we did a good job out there?" I look at him. Ever since I came back from the genocide in Rwanda six years before I have enjoyed the praise of my colleagues at work, my tour of duty out there worn like a medal on my chest. Now this. The ice twirls around my glass. I'm struggling for an answer - looking at Tom, trying to read in his face a motive behind the question. I almost feel defensive - what the hell kind of question is that anyway. He takes a deep breath, "Because, you see, I don't think we did. We left and we should have stayed."

Also, see Shooting Dog's other blog called Rwandan Survivors. It is dedicated to the survivors of the genocide and aims to provide a platform for anyone to write their views on subjects raised. Good luck David! I've found genocide to be a bit of a conversation stopper :)

Africa's rebels take their battles online

Washington Post article by Emily Wax 14 January 2006.

[via The Blog Herald with thanks]

MSF list of ten most under-reported stories of last year

What we should worry about, according to Medecins Sans Frontieres:

Chechnya
Northern Uganda
Northeastern India
Congo
Colombia
Southern Sudan
Ivory Coast
Somalia
Haiti
HIV/AIDS

Those are the ten most under-reported stories of last year.

Read full story at Contango: Our responsibility.

DR Congo backs new constitution

The Democratic Republic of Congo has approved a new constitution which paves the way for historic presidential and parliamentary elections in March.

According to official results from the 18 December referendum, released on Wednesday, 84.31% voted in favour of the constitution to 15.69% against.

The new charter allows greater autonomy for some of the huge country's mineral-rich regions.

DR Congo's people voted for the constitution in December.

Full report BBC 12 January 2006.

The Lancet 2006: Mortality in the DR of Congo: a nationwide survey

British medical journal, The Lancet recently published a report on mortality in DR Congo. Louis at Telegraphe Congolais says the report is not available online but he has managed to blog an excerpt.

Digimotion Digital Album Blogged

See my latest entry at Sudan Watch: Digimotion Digital Album - Powerful stuff, check it out.

Thousands die from DR Congo war

BBC news today says, according to the Lance medical journal, the conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo is killing 38,000 people each month.

Humanitarian crisis continues in the Congo: Death toll 4 million - 1,200 people dying every day

Report from Reuters today says the Congo conflict is the deadliest humanitarian crisis of the last 60 years but the world is still not doing enough to save lives, according to a survey published in the Lancet medical journal. Excerpts:

Its authors pleaded urgently for more aid and tougher security in the wake of a war estimated to have killed nearly four million people, mainly through hunger and disease.

The U.N.'s 17,000-strong Congo peacekeeping force -- its biggest in the world -- is trying to establish order across Africa's third largest country in the wake of the war which began in 1998 and officially ended in 2003.

Bands of gunmen still intimidate civilians in large areas, particularly in the east whose mineral riches are believed to have fuelled a conflict that at one point drew in six foreign armies and was dubbed Africa's first world war.

The survey showed that the death toll in the Congo conflict so far was higher than the numbers killed in Bosnia, Rwanda, Kosovo and Darfur.

Full report by Paul Majendie London (Reuters) 6 Jan 2006.

UN captures DR Congo rebel town

An operation in the Democratic Republic of Congo, involving helicopter gunships and 1,900 UN and Congolese troops, has taken a key town from a rebel militia.

The town of Nioka has been captured, UN military spokesman Major Hans-Jakob Reichen, told the BBC.

The town, 80km (50 miles) north of Bunia, had been a rebel stronghold.

The joint operation, which began on Thursday, was against a militia led by Peter Karim. He has now fled northwards, the UN says.

Two of his bodyguards have been captured and the UN and Congolese troops hope to take him as well.

The militia he leads has been accused of atrocities against civilians in the region, which borders Uganda and Sudan.

Full report (BBC) 24 Dec 2005.

Angelina Jolie and John Prendergast's Congo Journal

Note Congo Journal by Angelina Jolie, John Prendergast and read Ripples of Genocide: Journey Through Eastern Congo.

[via Ali's Salon with thanks]

'Cursed' gold - on the trail from militia-controlled gold mines to Uganda

See On the trail of DR Congo's 'cursed' gold, a report by BBC correspondent Will Ross in Mongbwalu dated 3 June 2005.

Note he is following the gold trail to Uganda which begins in Mongbwalu, in DR Congo's Ituri district.

DR Congo 'backs new constitution'?

DR Congo's infrastructure has been wrecked by war and misrule but on 20 Dec 2005 BBC report also says DR Congo 'backs new constitution'.

According to the report, voters in the DRC have overwhelmingly backed a new post-war constitution in a referendum, early results indicate - and the president of DRC's electoral commission said the 'yes' campaign had won 78% of votes, compared to 21% for the 'no' campaign, on a 34% count.

However, according to a 16 Dec 2005 BBC report - DR Congo set for 'mystery' vote - voters in DR Congo were set to vote on a new constitution last Sunday but many complained they did not know what it contained.



Photo: These women queued for a copy of the draft constitution.



Photo: This man is one of the lucky few who has got a copy of the constitution.

Read BBC's Q&A: DR Congo vote.



Photo (AFP/BBC) Huge crowds turned out to welcome President Joseph Kabila when he made his first official visit to Bukavu.

Vist Ali's Salon of News and Thought for DRC news and list of Presidential Candidates.

Photos from the Rutshuru mission

Good news, Louis of Telegraphe Congolaise is safe, well and blogging. See Too much gun talk, keep on scrolling and be sure to click on each of the photos for great magnification and read On the march.

Asylum questions for DR Congo

What happens to asylum seekers who are sent home? As part of a BBC World Service investigation, Jenny Cuffe has followed the footsteps of failed asylum seekers sent back from Europe to the Democratic Republic of Congo. What she found raised questions over how European governments are treating those they deport. Full story 1 Dec 2005 (BBC). Note, the report says:

Although Africa's bloodiest conflict has cost an estimated four million lives since 1998, many EU countries judge it safe to send failed asylum seekers back. They say that there is a transitional government which plans elections next year.

Malnutrition is widespread in Congolese prisons. United Nations has described the regime in DR Congo's prisons as one of rape and torture. If prisoners do not have relatives to bring them food, they may eventually die of starvation, it reports.

Human rights lawyer Celestin Nikiana has started to list the prisoners in Makala. He has found two of the prisoners to be former asylum seekers who have been there for more than five years without charge: Alain Londole, who was returned by Belgium, and Willy Ayi-Ansha, sent back by Italy. Mr Nikiana believes there is at least one other asylum seeker, returned from Belgium, being kept in the prison's political wing.

The UN has also criticised unofficial jails run by DR Congo's national intelligence service. These are said to be places where prisoners are subjected to "cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment and even torture". Human rights campaigners say they have information that one former asylum seeker is being kept in one of these secret centres.

Although campaigners have warned some people deported from Europe may be put at risk, they have not yet been able to produce convincing evidence.

DR Congo troops to Uganda border

"We have transported 300 Congolese soldiers to Aba in our helicopters and another 200 are on the way there by road," United Nations military spokesman Thierry Provendier said, Reuters reports.

The force will number 1,000 men by the end of this week, he said.

Full report (BBC) October 4, 2005.

Tags: Congo DR Congo Sudan Uganda UN Uganda DRC LRA terrorists

UN airlifts Congo troops to deal with Uganda's LRA rebels

The U.N. has airlifted several hundred Congo government soldiers to a remote corner of the country to deal with heavily armed Ugandan LRA rebels who have entered and refuse to disarm, a U.N. spokesman said on Tuesday.

The helicopters flew the troops to Aba, an isolated town near the Democratic Republic of Congo's northeastern border with Uganda and Sudan, U.N. military spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Thierry Provendier said in Kinshasa.

Full report Kinshasa, Oct 4 (Reuters)

Tags: Congo DR Congo Sudan Uganda UN Uganda DRC LRA terrorists

UN mission in DR Congo has said it intends to use all means necessary to drive out the LRA

LRA rebels are suspected of ambushing a civilian pick up truck in north east Uganda, shooting the driver and two passengers, and killing a fourth with an axe, repots the BBC October 4, 2005.

Note, the report states "DR Congo has warned Uganda not to try to disarm an LRA force in its territory" - and ends by saying "the UN mission in DR Congo has said it intends to use all means necessary to drive out the LRA group."

Tags: Congo DR Congo Sudan Africa Khartoum Uganda DRC LRA terrorists

Ugandan troops amass at border of DR Congo

From Michael at Uganda-CAN October 3, 2005:

Thousands of Ugandan troops have begun gathering at the border of the Democratic Republic of the Congo in the West Nile region of Uganda, purportedly in preparation to engage Lord's Resistance Army forces across the border, reports AllAfrica. A contingent of approximately 400 LRA forces crossed into Congo over a week ago, and requests from UN and Congolese officials for the LRA to disarm have been ignored.

Although Uganda's Minister of Defense last week claimed that Uganda would under no circumstances enter the DRC, President Museveni has this week stated that if UN and Congolese troops do not take immediate and aggressive action, Uganda's military would be sent across the border. Uganda played a central role in destabilizing eastern Congo during the civil war that ended in 2004, and many fear that if Ugandan forces cross the border again, more chaos could ensue. Several small armed insurgencies still plague the region today.

Uganda-CAN urges the Government of Uganda and UN to delay attacks on the group until robust efforts have been made to open negotiations with the rebels.

Tags: Congo DR Congo Sudan Africa Khartoum Uganda DRC LRA terrorists

Submissions Welcomed For Spotlight On Darfur 2

If you wish to contribute a blog entry for Spotlight on Darfur 2, please contact Eddie Beaver at Live From The FDNF in time for 16 October 2005 deadline.

Jim Moore, co-founder of Sudan: Passion of the Present, recently posted a note from Eddie on this initiative with an important PINR report from Michael Weinstein.

Note, Catez Stevens in New Zealand initiated and hosted Spotlight on Darfur 1 round up of posts authored by 14 different bloggers from around the world. Jim Moore, in praise of this, writes:

"In my view this work is so fine as to be almost historic. It combines the literary quality of a small, carefully edited book, with the global accessibility of works on the web."



Last May, Catez also produced The Darfur Collection.

Image courtesy Tim Sweetman's post Let Us Weep.

Tags: Darfur Sudan Africa allthings2all aid bloggers Live 8 Live From The FDNF Darfur Collection Spotlight on Darfur

UN investigates DR Congo graves

A UN spokewoman told the BBC the remains were believed to be those of Congolese and Rwandan Hutus killed by Rwandan soldiers in 1996.

At the time the Rwandan Army was venturing into the DR Congo trying to find those responsible for mass genocide in Rwanda in 1994.

The graves were exhumed by Congolese troops.

Tags: Africa genocide Hutus Rwandan DR Congo Rwanda Congolese

DR Congo militia deadline expires

A deadline set by the Democratic Republic of Congo for all foreign militias to leave the country passes.

Full story at BBC News Africa 30 Sep 2005.



Photo: Militia have been most active in the east of DR Congo (BBC)

A peace deal ended DR Congo's civil war in 2002, but the government exerts little control in the east.

Uganda has meanwhile threatened to use force against Lord's Resistance Army rebels sheltering in DR Congo.



Photo: UN patrols are a reminder that life is still far from normal in eastern DR Congo.

17,000 United Nations peacekeepers in DR Congo are not enough, said Ibrahim Gambari, UN under secretary general for political affairs.

"To disarm them all will require an enormous peacekeeping force, which the UN doesn't have, and which member states are not willing to fund," he said.

Uganda and Rwanda sparked DR Congo's civil war by invading and supporting local militias, after accusing DR Congo of backing rebel groups.

Under the 2002 peace deal, all militias were supposed to be disarmed.

Tags: Africa Uganda LRA Sudan DR Congo UN Rwanda