Home

Congo

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 20, 2008
12:56 PM

CONTACT: Doctors Without Borders (MSF)

Condition: Critical

MSF Launches International Initiative Highlighting Plight of Civilians Caught in Eastern Congo’s War

new - November 20 - The international medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) today launched "Condition:Critical," a multimedia initiative aiming to bring global attention to the humanitarian consequences of the intensifying war in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.

###
Posted in healthcare, Human Rights, Congo

Aid Agencies Launch Joint Congo Appeal

Children queue for food at an aid station for thousands of displaced Congolese in Kibati, 12km from Goma. (Photograph: Stephen Morrison/EPA)

Urgent aid appeals for Congo are being made today as the extent of the humanitarian crisis is revealed.

Leading aid agencies are joining together to call on the public for cash to help ease the plight of those affected by the recent upsurge in violence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

More than 250,000 people have been forced to flee their homes because of fighting in recent weeks, adding to more than 1 million people already displaced.

Posted in Africa, Congo

Will President Obama Finally Bury King Leopold’s Ghost?

November 2008 was the 100-year anniversary of the Congo's conversion from the personal property of Belgian King Leopold II to a colonial possession of Belgium, itself. The King's brutal rule, documented in Leopold's Ghost, embarrassed the Belgians into switching "landlords" in 1908, but did little to ease the colonial burden on the Congolese people.

Posted in beyond obama, foreign policy, global trade, resource wars, Congo

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 13, 2008
11:26 AM

CONTACT: Human Rights Watch (HRW)

DR Congo: Protect Civilians From Brutal Rebel Attacks

Killings, Abductions, and Pillaging by Lord’s Resistance Army Continue

NEW YORK - November 13 - The UN Security Council should urgently increase the number of peacekeepers to help protect civilians in northern Democratic Republic of Congo following renewed attacks by the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), four international and national human rights organizations said today.

###
Posted in Human Rights, Congo

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 11, 2008
10:13 AM

CONTACT: Amnesty International

Fighting in Democratic Republic of Congo Causes Humanitarian Tragedy

- November 11 - Fighting continues on several fronts in North Kivu in the Democratic Republic of Congo despite a unilateral ceasefire declared by the armed group, the National Congress for the Defense of the People (CNDP), on 29 October. The CNDP's offensive in October forced a routed government army and hundreds of thousands of civilians down roads towards the provincial capital, Goma.

###
Posted in Human Rights, Congo

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 10, 2008
12:57 PM

CONTACT: Oxfam International
Rebecca Wynn in Goma on + 44 7769 887139

DR Congo: Action Must Replace European ‘Air-Miles’ Diplomacy as Ceasefire Breaks

GOMA, DRC - November 10 - EU foreign ministers meeting in Brussels today (Monday, 10 November) must provide clear commitments to send European troops to support the UN in eastern Congo, said international agency, Oxfam.

The fragile ceasefire is now broken, forcing thousands of people to flee again in fear and seriously jeopardizing the ability of aid agencies to help them. The UN's peacekeeping force, MONUC, has struggled to ensure the peace and keep the people safe, with an estimated quarter of a million people forced from their homes due to recent fighting.

###
Posted in Congo

New Front Opens in DR Congo Amid fears of Wider Conflict

A Congolese army soldier looks through binoculars at a checkpoint on a road leading into the provincial city of Goma. Fighting between rebels and pro-government forces opened up on new front in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, as southern African nations said they were ready to send in peacekeepers. (AFP)

KINSHASA - Fighting between rebels and pro-government forces opened up on new front in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, as southern African nations said they were ready to send in peacekeepers.

As Kinshasa warned it may deploy Angolan troops, raising fears of igniting the volatile Great Lakes region, the Southern African Development Community (SADC) said it was prepared to provide assistance to the DRC armed forces.

Posted in Congo

How The Mobile Phone in Your Pocket is Helping to Pay For The Civil War in Congo

More than 80 per cent of the world's coltan is in Africa, and 80 percent of that lies in territory controlled by Congo's various ragtag rebel groups, armed militia and its corrupt and underfunded national army.

GOMA - After two hours, drenched in sweat, he tugs on a cord tied to his waist and is pulled back to the surface, carrying with him a 30 kilogram sack of raw columbium-tantalite ore.

Few people have heard of this rare mineral, known as coltan, even though millions of people in the developed world rely on it. But global demand for the mineral, and a handful of other materials used in everything from cellphones to soup tins, is keeping the armies of Congo's ceaseless wars fighting.

Posted in war profiteering, Congo

'The Soldiers Didn't Ask Any Questions. They Just Shot Him'

A bodyguard stand near rebel leader Laurent Nkunda at his base in Tebero,, Thursday, Nov. 6, 2008 north of Goma in eastern Congo.A fragile cease-fire in Congo appeared to be unraveling Thursday as battles between warlord Laurent Nkunda's rebels and the army spread to another town in the volatile country's east, the U.N. said. (AP Photo/Karel Prinsloo)

KIWANGA - Jumy Kasereka told his mother the Tutsi rebel soldiers would not harm him. After all, he was a schoolteacher, not a fighter, and they would see he was too sick from malaria to move. Kasereka begged his mother to leave with the tens of thousands of others who Laurent Nkunda's rebels ordered out of the town of Kiwanga after they seized it from Hutu fighters. But Felista Maska refused to go. Hours later, one of Nkunda's soldiers arrived at the door of the small earth and wicker home, pushed his way in, and, without a word, dragged the 26-year-old teacher out.

Posted in Africa, Congo

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 6, 2008
4:00 PM

CONTACT: Human Rights Watch (HRW)

DR Congo: New Attacks on Civilians

Strengthen UN Peacekeepers to Protect Civilians

GOMA, DRC - November 6 - Rebel leader Laurent Nkunda's forces and government-backed Mai Mai militias deliberately killed civilians in Kiwanja, North Kivu province, on November 4-5, 2008, Human Rights Watch said today. UN peacekeepers based in the area were apparently unable to protect civilians from attack.

###
Posted in Congo
« first‹ previous12345next ›last »
Syndicate content