Black rhinos from South Africa relocated to Akagera park Finally, 10 eastern black rhinos have been relocated to the Akagera National Park in Rwanda from South Africa. Rhinos disappeared from the park about 10 years ago. The Rwanda Development Board (RDB) said the May 2 relocation of the rhinos was …
Read More »Rwanda, DRC to explore oil in Lake Kivu
The Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda have signed a five-year joint exploration agreement for oil under Lake Kivu. The agreement follows a similar one between Tanzanian President John Pombe Magufuli and Congolese President Joseph Kabila in 2016. The two leaders signed a memorandum of understanding to jointly explore the …
Read More »Murders touch off riots in DR Congo’s gold-rich northeast
Kisangani, DR Congo | AFP | Protesters angered by a string of unsolved murders threw up roadblocks and mobbed government offices in three days of riots in the restive gold-rich Ituri region of Democratic Republic of Congo, local officials said Monday. The trouble erupted Saturday in the town of Mahagi …
Read More »SPECIAL FEATURE: DR Congo, home to a tenth of the world’s languages
There are 450 languages spoken in the Democratic Republic of Congo Kinshasa, DR Congo | AFP | “I haven’t once spoken my mother tongue Kilokele in the 62 years I’ve lived in Kinshasa. None of my nine children speak it,” says Charles Tongohala. Tongohala’s native tongue is one of 450 spoken …
Read More »CONGO: Militia clashes kill 29 in eastern DRC
Goma, DR Congo | AFP | Twenty-nine people have been killed in three days of clashes between rival factions of a militia group in a village in Democratic Republic of Congo’s restive east, an official said Friday. The two factions are fighting for control of the village of Bweru in …
Read More »Kabila names opposition leader as Prime Minister
DR Congo president names new PM under power-sharing deal Kinshasa, DR Congo | AFP | President Joseph Kabila on Friday named an opposition leader as prime minister for the Democratic Republic of Congo, honouring a pledge made as part of a stalled power-sharing deal agreed in December. Bruno Tshibala, a …
Read More »THE LAST WORD: Africa through North Korean eyes
Why this communist state, with per capita income like ours, manufactures nuclear weapons and satellites while we can’t By Andrew M. Mwenda Last week the U.S. announced its intelligence showed North Korea was planning to test another nuclear weapon. If it does, it will be the sixth nuclear test by …
Read More »Bodies found of two UN experts in DRC amid spiralling violence
Kinshasa, DR Congo | AFP | Two foreign UN experts who were kidnapped in DR Congo have been found dead, one of them decapitated, the government said Tuesday, as spiralling violence in the vast country sparked international condemnation. The bodies of American Michael Sharp and Swedish national Zahida Catalan were …
Read More »DRC accuses rebels of killing 39 police officers
Kinshasa, DR Congo | AFP | Congolese national police accused rebels Monday of massacring 39 of their officers in the violence-wracked Kasai region. The victims were killed in an “ambush” early Friday and buried in a mass grave by supporters of late militia leader Kamwina Nsapu around 75 kilometres north …
Read More »In a first, ICC awards Congo war crimes victims $250 each
The Hague, Netherlands | AFP | The International Criminal Court Friday ordered 297 victims of ex-Congolese warlord Germain Katanga to each be paid “a symbolic” $250 in damages for a brutal 2003 attack on their village, in the tribunal’s first such award. Awarding both individual and collective damages, the court also …
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