Congo Archives - Page 2 of 4

World News in Brief: WFP forced to halt some food aid in Sudan, DR Congo elections, peacekeeping chief visits CAR

·December 20, 2023·3 min read

WFP described the decision taken on safety grounds as a major setback to humanitarian efforts in the country’s breadbasket, where staff had been regularly providing aid to over 800,000 people, including many who had escaped the fighting in Khartoum. The ongoing fighting makes it extremely challenging for humanitarian agencies to...

World News in Brief: DR Congo mission extended, Sudan displacement deepens, warzone death toll for journalists spikes

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·December 19, 2023·4 min read

The Mission, known as MONUSCO, has been in the country for two decades and is in the process of drawing down. The decision taken today by the Council sets out a comprehensive disengagement plan that includes three distinct, successive phases and the gradual handover of responsibility to the Government. MONUSCO...

DR Congo: Elections looming, amid worsening insecurity

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·December 11, 2023·2 min read

Briefing ambassadors at the UN Security Council, Bintou Keita, Special Representative of the Secretary-General noted steady progress in the electoral process despite significant logistical, financial, and security challenges. However, the resurgence of the crises related to the M23 group in the east, and new pockets of insecurity in the Greater...

Clashes in eastern DR Congo displace 450,000 in six weeks

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·November 24, 2023·1 min read

Violent clashes between non-state armed groups and government forces have displaced more than 450,000 people in the last six weeks in Rutshuru and Masisi territories in North Kivu province. People arriving in the town of Sake, located near the provincial capital Goma, spoke of having to make harrowing choices, with...

World News in Brief: ICC slams ‘unacceptable threats’, DR Congo displacement, UNEP ‘Champions of the Earth’

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·October 31, 2023·2 min read

ICC President Piotr Hofmański was presenting the independent court’s annual report to the UN in New York. The ICC was established in July 2002 under a treaty known as the Rome Statute and is based in The Hague, in the Netherlands. Mr. Hofmański noted that he himself, along with Prosecutor Karim Khan...

DR Congo: UN peacekeepers suspended over serious misconduct charges

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·October 13, 2023·1 min read

“The Mission strongly condemns such behaviour which is not worthy of United Nations personnel,” MONUSCO said in a statement on Wednesday. Although the UN Mission did not give details, international media reported that eight South African “blue helmets” had been detained over allegations of sexual abuse. Assault and threats The...

DR Congo: Few worse places to be a child warns UNICEF as twins found boobytrapped

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·September 10, 2023·2 min read

UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Representative in the country, Grant Leaity, issued the alert on Tuesday, revealing that youngsters in eastern DRC face daily atrocities, including rape, abduction and recruitment by armed groups. “I visited a centre in Beni and North Kivu for children released from armed groups where I met...

DR Congo: Children facing worst cholera outbreak in six years

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·August 18, 2023·1 min read

Across the country, there have been at least 31,342 suspected or confirmed cholera cases and 230 deaths in the first seven months of 2023 – many of them children. The worst affected province, North Kivu, has seen more than 21,400 confirmed or suspected cases, including more than 8,000 children under...

Eastern DR Congo: Health system at breaking point warns WHO

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·July 1, 2023·2 min read

Speaking from Kinshasa, Dr. Jorge Castilla, WHO’s Senior Emergency Officer, told journalists at the regular briefing in Geneva there had been a major increase in displacement due to ongoing violence fuelled by armed groups, leaving around 7.4 million in need of health assistance. Disease and displacement Since March 2022, almost...

Security in eastern DR Congo continues to worsen, Security Council hears

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·June 29, 2023·4 min read

“So far, the ceasefire between the M23 and the FARDC has held up relatively well and has contributed to some security gains”, said UN Assistant Secretary-General for Africa Martha Pobee. “The relative calm in Rutshuru territory, for example, allowed more than 45,000 people from the Bishusha group to return home”, she...

DR Congo: Armed group attacks displace nearly 1 million since January

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·June 15, 2023·1 min read

An estimated 6.1 million are internally displaced, a 17 per cent increase from October, according to its Displacement Tracking Matrix. IOM said civilians have been killed or forced to flee their homes due to a surge in violence and attacks by armed groups. Deadly attack, intolerable dangers At least 46...

DR Congo: Desperate situation facing millions displaced by armed violence

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·May 7, 2023·1 min read

The country has 6.2 million internally displaced people, while more than 1.3 million have become refugees. UNHCR said that Goma, the capital of eastern DRC’s North Kivu province, hosts over 560,000 displaced people in and around the city. Many live in spontaneous sites on the side of the road, in dire...