Democratic Republic of the Congo News Archives

“This should include efforts to better understand the scope of the problem, so as to best direct public health interventions”

Washington, Feb 29 : A new study has found that tobacco use and exposure to second-hand smoke during pregnancy are major health threats in several low and middle-income countries, like India and Pakistan. via India Gazette

“If it [the food shortage] continues, we will stage a revolt worse than any other”

More than 500 hungry prisoners in the northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo town of Bunia have threatened to rebel, complaining they have not eaten for four days. via AllAfrica.com

“Our strong financial performance was due to continued above-target operational performance at the Dikulushi mine and increases in realized copper and silver prices.”

Anvil Mining Ltd. reported Tuesday a fourth-quarter profit of US$21.7 million, up from a year-earlier $21.3 million, capping a record year of sales and production. via Penticton Herald

“While there is of course more work to be done, countries like Liberia, where the president recently visited, are clearly headed in the right direction and grateful for the help provided by President Bush and the American people”

Somali soldiers ride through Mogadishu. Fighting has been common in Somalia since dictator Mohamed Siad Barre was ousted in 1991, sparking a deadly power struggle in the country. via The Epoch Times

Recent accords aimed at ending fighting in the eastern provinces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo are an opportunity to finally stop the horrific abuse of people displaced by that violence, an ... via AllAfrica.com

“The state has failed in its obligations because there are laws, national and international, which require it to feed and care for prisoners”

Human rights activists in the Democratic Republic of Congo have condemned the death by starvation and lack of medical care of 16 inmates in a congested prison in Mbuji-Mayi, capital of the central province of ... via AllAfrica.com

“They are making a valuable contribution to saving lives and rebuilding the livelihoods of those affected”

The Government wants more recruits for its international disaster response unit. via BreakingNews.ie

“I expect that the law upon which the decision was based will be presented to me to see whether it conforms [to the amnesty law]”

The acquittal by a court in the Democratic Republic of Congo of a militia leader convicted of war crimes has drawn criticism, with human rights activists saying the decision could set a bad precedent in a ... via AllAfrica.com

Thursday, 21 February 2008, 11:03 am Press Release: United Nations Deadly Ebola outbreak in western Uganda is over, says UN health agency 20 February 2008 – Ugandan health authorities have declared that ... via Scoop

“The killings are believed to have been committed in reprisal for the villagers' seeking refuge in the sector controlled by perceived enemies of the Nkunda faction”

Thursday, 21 February 2008, 11:05 am Press Release: United Nations UN probes killings by Government forces, rebels in eastern DR Congo 20 February 2008 – The United Nations peacekeeping operation in the ... via Scoop

“For the first time, the three countries have decided to protect the great apes which are threatened with extinction and insecurity in the region”

The slaughter of mountain gorillas in 2007 shocked the world Three countries have come together for the first time, to try to save the mountain gorillas of central Africa. via BBC

“Only the European Commission seems to have the audacity to claim otherwise.”

Central African countries have committed themselves to finalising an economic partnership agreement with the European Union by June this year. via AllAfrica.com

The Security Council today extended its arms embargo and other sanctions against militias operating in the Democratic Republic of the Congo until the end of March, underlining that it remains deeply concerned ... via AllAfrica.com

“I am very happy and grateful for this gesture. I was lost, I had nothing left”

The United Nations refugee agency is distributing supplies to some 55,000 displaced people who have returned to their homes in the southern province of Katanga in the Democratic Republic of the Congo . via United Nations

Friday, 15 February 2008, 9:15 am Press Release: United Nations Members of an unidentified armed group have launched a series of violent attacks against locals in southern Sudan's Central Equatoria state over ... via Scoop

“This strong earthquake was actually just another aftershock of the real earthquake that struck on 3 February”

A tremor measuring 5.5 on the open-ended Richter scale rocked the South Kivu town of Bukavu in the early hours of 14 February and could be felt some 200 kilometres from the epicentere, according to the head of ... via AllAfrica.com

By Louis Charbonneau

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The U.N. Security Council renewed an arms embargo and asset freeze aimed at rebels in Congo for another six weeks on Friday, after U.N. peacekeepers reported clashes that threaten a cease-fire.

The French-drafted resolution said the situation in the mineral-rich central African nation "continues to constitute a threat to international peace and security in the region."

President Joseph Kabila's government, Tutsi insurgents loyal to renegade General Laurent Nkunda and Mai Mai militia agreed a truce three weeks ago to end months of fighting and draw a line under a decade of violence in eastern Congo. Read more

“The houses that came down are mainly those devastated by the February 3 earthquake”

BUKAVU: A second big earthquake in less than two weeks has brought down houses and left one person dead and at least 60 people injured in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda yesterday. via The Mercury

“It was less powerful this time”

By Joe Bavier

KINSHASA (Reuters) - An earthquake shook the Lake Kivu region of eastern Democratic Republic of Congo on Thursday, further damaging buildings hit by quakes earlier this month, a U.N. and local officials said.

The latest earthquake, of magnitude 5.4, followed two quakes that hit Africa's Great Lakes region on February 3, killing more than 40 people and injuring hundreds, mostly in southern Rwanda.

There were no immediate reports of casualties on Thursday.

"We've not yet evaluated the damage but we haven't counted any dead or injured in the province," Bernard Watunakanza, South Kivu province's acting governor, told Reuters. Read more

“Three (Mai Mai fighters) are injured, one of them seriously”

Fresh clashes were reported on Wednesday between armed groups in a troubled region in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo, in breach of a three-week-old ceasefire. via Independent Online

The United Nations children's agency UNICEF says an epidemic of rape has sprung up in African war zones. via Laos News.Net

Eanna O Caollai Ireland is to send two senior aid officials and a quantity of aid to assist in recovery efforts in the earthquake-hit regions of the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda, the Government has ... via The Irish Times

“It seems to go with a significant uprooting of a society, that some of the social norms just crumble”

Sexual violence has reached epidemic proportions in African countries from Kenya to Sudan with many men seeing social chaos as a "licence to rape," the UN children's fund warned on Tuesday. via Independent Online

Katanga Mining Limited reports that KFL Limited , Gecamines and Kamoto Copper Company have signed an agreement that sets out compensation, security and payment in exchange for the release to Gecamines of the ... via Earth Times

“Congo doesn't have to wait for its infrastructure until it has the money. Building starts immediately with the natural resources as guarantee. Except in oil-rich states, I know of no other deal quite like this.”

The massive deal that China signed with the Democratic Republic of Congo last year is not the "second colonisation" that some Europeans allege it is. via AllAfrica.com

“We raised the Congolese flag over Kengezi Base on Sunday 3 February, regaining our territorial integrity. They [the SPLA] agreed to withdraw unconditionally. We ourselves favoured an amicable solution without trying to create other problems”

Police and other security services from the Democratic Republic of Congo have begun deploying near the Sudanese border after the Sudan People's Liberation Army withdrew troops who had occupied the area for a ... via AllAfrica.com

“The Congolese[-related] companies have probably lost a billion dollars in market capitalization today because of this”

Scores of mining companies hoping to tap the billions of dollars worth of mineral riches in the Democratic Republic of the Congo were dealt a major setback yesterday after the government indicated it wanted a ... via Globe and Mail

Congo has arrested and turned over for trial an army colonel and former rebel leader accused of leading a deadly 2003 attack on a village in the country's lawless east, the International Criminal Court announced Thursday.

Mathieu Ngudjolo was handed to court officials in Kinshasa on Wednesday and was expected to arrive at the court's detention unit in The Hague later Thursday, a court statement said.

He is the third Congolese suspect to be taken into custody by the world's first permanent war crimes court. Read more

“They are in the process of repeating the mistakes that the colonial powers have made”

Reuters Posted online: Wednesday, February 06, 2008 at 0832 hrs IST Dakar, February 5: Hungry for oil and minerals, India and China have become Africa's new colonialists, exploiting the world's poorest ... via Express India

TEAL Exploration & Mining said that it has discovered copper and cobalt mineralisation in the Karu East block some 5km SSE of the Lupoto Copper Project in the Democratic Republic of Congo . via Sunday Times

United Nations humanitarian agencies have started distributing emergency relief supplies, including food, tents and surgical kits, to thousands of people living in the far east of the Democratic Republic of the ... via United Nations

“People are looking for their belongings amidst the rubble. They try to go into their houses, but they don't stay very long. They are still afraid”

Aid workers pulled bodies from collapsed buildings in southern Rwanda today after an earthquake that killed at least 43 people and injured hundreds across the Great Lakes region. via SABC News

“The death toll has now increased to 25 from the earthquake. Two hundred have serious injuries”

Earthquakes struck Rwanda and neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo on Sunday, killing at least 30 people and seriously injuring 350 more, officials said. via Reuters UK

“Some 400 fighters were based there. Others fled towards Mount Hoyo [20km to the south] or headed west to Marabo and Irumo, where our troops managed to kill two of them”

At least 10 rebels have been killed in clashes with government forces in the northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo region of Ituri, prompting thousands of civilians to take flight, according to military and ... via AllAfrica.com

“The government's senior generals tolerate the blatant recruitment of children and fail to punish perpetrators. In this environment, army recruiters traffic children at will”

United Nations secretary-general Ban Ki-moon urged further measures to combat child military recruitment yesterday, which he said continues to take place in more than 12 countries including Burma. via Burmanet