Congo - deepest, darkest Africa

waltky · May 22, 2017

Congo hit by ebola outbreak...

WHO Optimistic on Controlling DRC Ebola Outbreak
May 21, 2017 — The World Health Organization’s regional chief for Africa reports prospects for rapidly controlling the spread of the deadly Ebola virus in the Democratic Republic of Congo are good.

While not underestimating the difficulties that lie ahead in bringing this latest outbreak of Ebola to an end, Matshidiso Moeti told VOA she is “very encouraged” by the speed with which the government and its national and international partners have responded to this crisis. “I am quite optimistic because this is a government that is experienced at this, and which has got off to a very quick start and we are already on the ground with the partners. “We are getting logistic support from WFP [World Food Program] and from the U.N. mission. So, I am quite optimistic,” Moeti said.

Created by CDC microbiologist Frederick A. Murphy, this colorized transmission electron micrograph (TEM) revealed some of the ultrastructural morphology displayed by an Ebola virus virion.

WHO has reported 29 suspected cases, including three deaths since Ebola was discovered in a remote region of DRC on April 22. This deadly virus causes fever, bleeding, vomiting and diarrhea. It spreads easily through bodily fluids and can kill more than 50 percent of its victims. This is the eighth recorded outbreak of Ebola in DRC since 1976. The outbreak was first detected in Bas-Uele Province, a densely-forested area in northeastern Congo near the border with the Central African Republic.

Outbreak isolated

Moeti calls the remoteness of the area “a mixed blessing.” She said that there was little likelihood of a “rapid expansion of the outbreak to other localities due to population movement as happened in West Africa. Although, we are keeping a close eye on the Central African Republic ... where we are concerned that there is insecurity there.” She said it was difficult to operate and carry out surveillance or investigations in this area because the road network leading there was not very well developed and “we have to drive long distances, not in a car, but have to use a motorbike.” To remedy this, she said the government had fixed up a landing strip to enable helicopters to fly in the experts and material needed to deal with this crisis.

Bas-Uele Province, Democratic Republic of Congo

Moeti, a South African physician, replaced Luis Gomez Sambo of Angola as WHO regional head for Africa in January 2015 after he was criticized for his lackluster leadership in handling the 2014 Ebola outbreak in West Africa. The World Health Organization has come under scathing criticism by the international community for its slow and inept response to that unprecedented epidemic. By the time WHO declared the Ebola epidemic at an end in January 2016, the deadly virus had killed 11,315 people in Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea.

Experience put to use
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WHO: 400 Contacts Being Traced in Congo's Ebola Outbreak
May 18, 2017 — Health workers are monitoring more than 400 people amid an Ebola outbreak in a remote corner of Congo where already three deaths have been blamed on the virus, the World Health Organization said Thursday.

An experimental vaccine has been developed since the West African epidemic in 2014-2016 that left more than 11,000 people dead, but WHO said it is still awaiting permission from the Congolese government to use it. The Ebola outbreak in the far north near the border with Central African Republic is the eighth in Congo since 1976. Congo has a long track record with the hemorrhagic fever, WHO said. "However, we cannot underestimate the logistical and practical challenges associated with this response in a very remote, insecure part of the country," said Dr. Peter Salama, executive director of WHO's health emergencies program. "We've also learned never, ever to underestimate the Ebola virus disease."

Authorities believe three deaths are linked to the outbreak: a 39-year-old man who died before he could reach a hospital, the motorcyclist transporting him and a caregiver traveling with them. So far just two cases have been confirmed by laboratory testing. There are 18 other suspected cases.

The outbreak in Likati is some 1,400 kilometers (870 miles) from Congo's capital, Kinshasa. Helicopters and small aircraft are carrying teams to the remote area, where they are setting up a mobile testing laboratory and making improvements to the local airstrip.

Because the Ebola vaccine is still considered experimental, Congo's government must give special permission for it to be used. WHO is still awaiting such confirmation, at which point it could take about a week to ship the vaccines to Congo and have teams ready to carry it out.

http://www.voanews.com/a/who-ebola-contacts-congo/3855620.html
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waltky · Jul 2, 2017

Congo ebola outbreak over...

DRC Declares Ebola Outbreak Over
July 01, 2017 — Democratic Republic of Congo declared its two-month Ebola outbreak officially over Saturday after 42 days without recording a new case of the disease.

The outbreak in Congo’s remote northeastern forests, a record eighth for the country where the disease was first discovered in 1976, killed four out of the eight people infected, Health Minister Oly Ilunga said in a statement. “I declare on this day, at midnight, the end of the outbreak of the hemorrhagic fever of the Ebola virus in DRC,” Ilunga said.

A health worker sprays a colleague with disinfectant during a training session for Congolese health workers to deal with Ebola virus in Kinshasa, Oct. 21, 2014. The Democratic Republic of Congo had declared a two-month ebola outbreak over.

Congolese health authorities approved the use of a new experimental vaccine but ultimately declined to deploy it because of the small scale of the outbreak and logistical challenges. The latest outbreak came a year after the end of the virus’ deadliest episode in West Africa, which killed more than 11,300 people and infected some 28,600 as it swept through Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia and caused alarm around the world.

Health officials say northeastern Congo’s remote geography combined with the country’s experience fighting the disease allowed them to gain the upper hand quickly. “The government of DRC has been very transparent in declaring that there is the outbreak and that really facilitated ... communication and information sharing and rapid action,” Ibrahima Soce Fall, a senior World Health Organization official in Africa, told Reuters last week.

https://www.voanews.com/a/drc-congo-declares-ebola-outbreak-over/3924129.html
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waltky · Jul 26, 2017

More than a million people displaced in DRC...

UN: Congo Military 'Elements' Dug Dozens of Mass Graves
Thursday 27th July, 2017 - Congo military 'elements' are responsible for digging at least 42 mass graves in three Kasai provinces after clashes with alleged militia members in recent months, the United Nations said as experts were appointed Wednesday to look into a growing crisis that has killed hundreds and displaced more than a million people.

Human rights have deteriorated alarmingly due to the 'brutal and disproportionate repression against the Kamuina Nsapu militia by the Congolese defense forces,' the U.N. Joint Human Rights Office in Congo said in a new report. Congolese soldiers have killed more than 428 people, including women and 140 children, in the once-calm Kasai provinces as of June, the office said. The militia has killed at least 37 people during that time, it said.

The U.N. said it regrets the 'lack of efforts' to ensure independent investigations into the serious human rights violations that have included sexual violence and the use of child soldiers. The Catholic church has estimated that more than 3,300 people have died in the fighting in the Kasai provinces since the military killed the militia's traditional chief in August. Congo's government didn't immediately comment on the new U.N. report but has blamed the militia for the mass graves, which the U.N. says number at least 80.

The report also says allegations have come forth since April that a self-defense group, the Bana Mura, may be supported by Congo's military and that it reportedly has committed a number of executions against civilians associated with the Kamwina Nsapu militia. The U.N. human rights chief on Wednesday appointed a three-member panel to investigate alleged abuses in the Kasai region.

http://www.bignewsnetwork.com/news/254115798/un-congo-military-elements-dug-dozens-of-mass-graves
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U.N. Names 3 Rights Experts to Probe Mass Killings in Congo
Thursday 27th July, 2017 - The United Nations named three human rights experts on Wednesday to lead an international investigation into killings and other crimes in the Kasai region of Democratic Republic of Congo, a move that risks a showdown with the government.

Congo has insisted that its own justice system is in charge of the inquiry with the United Nations providing 'technical or logistical support'. Some Western states and campaign groups said they had hoped for a stronger U.N. mandate. The announcement came a day after the U.N. Joint Human Rights Office in Congo (UNJHRO) accused 'elements' of the Congolese army of digging most of dozens of mass graves discovered in recent months in Kasai.

Bacre Waly Ndiaye, a U.N. investigator from Senegal, will lead a fact-finding team that includes Luc Cote, a Canadian who worked on a previous U.N. inquiry into Congo atrocities, and Mauritania's Fatimata M'Baye. They were named by the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, who has called for perpetrators to be prosecuted, including the pro-government Bana Mura militia that he said had cut off childrens' limbs and sliced open pregnant women.

Government spokesman Lambert Mende played down any differences over the investigators' mandate as 'semantic' and said the Kinshasa government had instructed its embassies to help the experts procure visas. But he sharply criticized the U.N.'s findings from Tuesday on the mass graves. 'Before the investigators arrive, they have already designated the guilty,' Mende said. More than 3,000 people have been killed and 1.4 million displaced in the violence, part of a wave of unrest that has worsened since President Joseph Kabila refused to step down when his mandate expired in December.

The U.N. Human Rights Council's resolution launching the inquiry last month cited reports of 'recruitment and use of child soldiers, sexual and gender-based violence, destruction of houses, schools, places of worship and state infrastructure by local militias, as well as of mass graves'. Kinshasa has been fighting insurgents in the Kasai region since August and there are fears of a wider conflict in the vast central African country, a tinderbox of ethnic rivalry and competing claims over mineral resources.

http://www.bignewsnetwork.com/news/...ights-experts-to-probe-mass-killings-in-congo
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waltky · Dec 6, 2017

Congo displacement crisis 'worse than Middle East...

DR Congo displacement crisis 'worse than Middle East'
Dec. 6,`17 - Conflict has forced 1.7 million people to flee their homes in the Democratic Republic of Congo this year, causing "a mega-crisis", aid agencies say.

This means that for the second consecutive year, DR Congo is worst-affected by conflict displacement in the world, the agencies add. DR Congo has been hit by years of instability, with rival militias fighting for control of territory. The conflict has been worsened by the failure to hold elections last year. "It's a mega-crisis. The scale of people fleeing violence is off the charts, outpacing Syria, Yemen and Iraq," the Norwegian Refugee Council's DR Congo director, Ulrika Blom, said. In a new report, the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre said that an average of 5,500 people fled their homes every day this year. The reasons include new armed conflicts, a rise in existing conflicts and the delay in holding elections, the report said.

More than seven million people are struggling to feed themselves, aid workers say

Despite there being four million displaced people, as well as more than seven million struggling to feed themselves, international aid has been slow to materialise, Ms Blom said. "If we fail to step up now, mass hunger will spread and people will die. We are in a race against time," she warned. DR Congo's Minister of Information, Lambert Mende, has however disputed the aid agencies' report, saying that the number of the displaced people is "less than one million". He told BBC's Focus on Africa programme that the displaced people were, contrary to the report, returning home from neighbouring countries.

World has neglected DR Congo

The number of displaced people is shocking - even if it is disputed by the government. Local conflicts in several parts of the country - in particular the new crisis in the greater Kasai area - are all rumbling on as a gruesome backdrop to the national crisis over elections and whether President Joseph Kabila will leave power. The world hasn't been paying much attention. In part this is because these are difficult places to report from, and news agencies and TV channels with global reach don't have many correspondents in the country. Rightly or wrongly, DR Congo is not considered to have the same global strategic significance as, say, Syria.

Many parts of DR Congo are lawless

DR Congo is a vast country with immense economic resources, but years of conflict have led to most people living in poverty, and there is little infrastructure. President Joseph Kabila took power in 2001 following the assassination of his father, Laurent Kabila. He has won two elections and the constitution bars him from running for a third term. Mr Kabila's critics say the poll has been delayed so that he can remain in office. Mr Kabila's government has been battling new conflicts in the last year, including in the central Kasai region where violence broke out after the government refused to recognise a traditional chief. At least 400 people have been killed in the conflict in the region, which is regarded as an opposition stronghold.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-42250230
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waltky · Dec 8, 2017

UN troops ambushed in The Congo...

Rebels kill 14 peacekeepers in Congo in worst attack on U.N. in recent history
December 8, 2017 - Rebels killed at least 14 U.N. peacekeepers and wounded 53 others in Congo and U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Friday the attack that targeted troops from Tanzania was the worst in recent history.

Guterres said the raid in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo constituted a war crime and he called on Congolese authorities to investigate and “swiftly bring the perpetrators to justice”. “I want to express my outrage and utter heartbreak at last night’s attack,” Guterres told reporters at U.N. headquarters in New York. Three other peacekeepers are missing after a three-hour firefight that broke out at dusk on Thursday evening, said Ian Sinclair, the director of the U.N. Operations and Crisis Centre. Suspected militants from the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) staged the assault on a base for Congo’s U.N. mission (MONUSCO) in the town of Semuliki, the mission said.

The ADF is an Islamist rebel group from across the border in Uganda, who has been active in the area. MONUSCO said it was coordinating a joint response with the Congolese army and evacuating wounded from the base in North Kivu’s Beni territory. Five Congolese soldiers were also killed in the raid, MONUSCO said in a statement. Rival militia groups control parts of mineral-rich eastern Congo nearly a decade and a half after the official end of a 1998-2003 war that killed millions of people, most of whom died from hunger and disease. The area has been the scene of repeated massacres and at least 26 people died in an ambush in October.

The government and U.N. mission have blamed almost all the violence on the ADF but U.N. experts and independent analysts say other militia and elements of Congo’s army have also been involved. Increased militia activity in the east and center of the country and a series of prison breaks have fueled mounting insecurity in Congo this year amid political tensions linked to President Joseph Kabila’s refusal to step down when his mandate expired last December. An election to replace Kabila, who has ruled Congo since his father’s assassination in 2001, has been repeatedly delayed and is now scheduled for December 2018.

Established in 2010, MONUSCO is the United Nations’ largest peacekeeping mission and had recorded 93 fatalities of military, police and civilian personnel. The death toll for the attack varied. A spokesman for Congo’s army, Mak Hazukay, said only one Congolese soldier was missing after the fighting and one had been injured, adding that 72 militants had been killed. Guterres said most of the peacekeepers were from Tanzania. Tanzania’s defense minister declined to comment.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-...attack-on-u-n-in-recent-history-idUSKBN1E21YK
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waltky · Jan 1, 2018

Protests over Kabila's refusal to step down from power...

DRC: At Least Two Dead in Anti-Kabila Protests
December 31, 2017 - At least two civilians have been killed as violence erupted ahead of protests in the Democratic Republic of Congo on Sunday.

Police fired shots and tear gas to break up a Catholic mass and arrested altar boys who were among protesters gathering at the church to rally against President Joseph Kabila.

Congolese protest against President Joseph Kabila's refusal to step down from power in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo

Ida Sawyer, Central Africa director at Human Rights Watch, said two men had been killed outside the church. The French news agency, AFP, reported that an officer and a youth in the suburbs of Kinshasa were also killed.

The DRC has been mired in a political crisis over Kabila's refusal to step down from power. His second and last term as president ended in December 2016. New elections slated for 2017 have been delayed for at least one more year, fueling anger among Congolese militias and citizens.

https://www.voanews.com/a/drc-at-least-2-dead-in-anti-kabila-protests/4186518.html
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Congo reports suspect arrested in killing of 2 UN experts
Dec. 30, 2017 -- The suspected mastermind behind killing two United Nations experts in the Democratic Republic of Congo was arrested Saturday, according to authorities.

Congolese authorities said the man arrested, Constantin Tshidime Bulabula, is behind the slaying of Michael Sharp, of the United States, and Zaida Catalan, of Sweden, working with the U.N. mission to the DRC. The two were last seen March 12 while investigating human rights abuses in the remote village of Bunkonde.

The bodies of United Nations workers, found in the Democratic Republic of Congo, were confirmed to be those of Zaida Catalan, left, and Michael Sharp, who were reported missing on March 12.

Catalan and Sharp were part of a mission known as the Group of Experts on the Democratic Republic of Congo, responsible for monitoring insurgent groups in the eastern part of the country. Their bodies were found 15 days later. Catalan had been decapitated. According to a military spokesman, Tshidime Bulabula is chief of a town south of where the killings took place. He was taken into custody about 60 miles from his home, and has since been taken to Kananga along with another suspect, Tresor Mputu.

Human rights groups have suspected the government played a role in the killings and a UN inquiry in August could not rule out government involvement. The Congolese army denies involvement, saying the executioners are members of the Kamwina Nsapu militia. Authorities say Bulabula is a member of the militia, which has been in war with Congolese security forces since mid-2016 after the death of its leader. Since then, about 5,000 people have died in the fighting and the UN identified mass graves across the province.

https://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-...?utm_source=sec&utm_campaign=sl&utm_medium=10
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Merwen · Jan 1, 2018

waltky said: ↑

Protests over Kabila's refusal to step down from power...

DRC: At Least Two Dead in Anti-Kabila Protests
December 31, 2017 - At least two civilians have been killed as violence erupted ahead of protests in the Democratic Republic of Congo on Sunday.

See also:

Congo reports suspect arrested in killing of 2 UN experts
Dec. 30, 2017 -- The suspected mastermind behind killing two United Nations experts in the Democratic Republic of Congo was arrested Saturday, according to authorities.
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Interesting thread.

waltky · Mar 18, 2018

60k displaced in Congo violence...

Ethnic Violence in Congo's Northeast Displaces 60,000
March 18, 2018 — The assailants attacked under cover of darkness, slaughtering Nguli Nzafi 's wife and three children with machetes and arrows.

The 71-year-old, who also lost all 40 of his cattle in the violence, was forced to flee on foot some 90 kilometers (56 miles) to safety in the town of Bunia. "I have lost everything because I no longer have my wife nor my children," he says. "I cannot eat nor sleep. I'm afraid that this fighting is as bad as the war in 1996-2002." Violence between Nzafi's Hema community and the Lendu ethnic group in Congo's northeast has now killed at least 150 people and has forced more than 32,000 people to flee to Bunia, where humanitarian assistance is strained and the suffering are eager for improved conditions. Another 28,000 have also fled into Uganda, according to the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

There is a long history of tensions between the Lendu and Hema groups, whose ongoing battles since 1999 already have killed thousands and led the U.N. to deploy a peacekeeping force in the area. Much of it is rooted in economic tensions over land, as the Lendu historically have been farmers on stationery plots of land while the Hema have raised animals and moved throughout the year to good grazing areas. Once those disputes erupted into violence, the cycle of tit-for-tat attacks caused a mounting death toll. The instability here in Ituri province presents yet another challenge for the Congolese military and U.N. peacekeeping force who are already grappling with the threats posed by rebel groups, and with ongoing unrest in the Kasai provinces.

Nguli Nzafi who lost his wife and three children following attacks by assailants, stands with others at a camp for displace people in Bunia, Eastern Congo

The latest round of fighting began in December, Djugu deputy administrator Willy Maese told The Associated Press. "The Lendu had asked the Hema to give them part of their crops. Following their refusals, the Lendu launched attacks directly on the Hemas," he said. Despite a reprieve when authorities came, fighting intensified in February leading to a wave of displacements, he said. Kpadyu Londri, a 26-year-old from Djugu, said the Lendu came to steal cows and ravage fields. They killed his five brothers and a woman, he said. He has found safety in Bunia, 75 kilometers (47 miles) from his home village, but he said conditions are bad. "There are no tents so the rain falls on us, no beds, blankets ... we have already lost seven displaced [people], who have died as a result of starvation and dirty hands disease," he said, referring to outbreaks of cholera.

Beatrice Ngave, 23, lost her daughter to malaria. She called on international organizations to build more latrines and accommodations to prevent the spread of cholera and other diseases. Right now, she said, the camp has only two latrines. Last week, youths in Bunia invaded the office of the governor of the Ituri province, with sticks and machetes, demanding the government to take action, said youth leader Joseph Tibasima. Celestin Tawara Angaika, the president of the Lendu community in Bunia, last week asked the Congolese government for the protection of its members. Congo's Deputy Prime Minister of Interior Security Henri Mova Sakanyi has promised "to strengthen the presence of the Congolese army and the police" in the Djugu and Blukwa villages.

https://www.voanews.com/a/ethnic-violence-in-congo-northeast-displaes-60000/4303773.html
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Congo - deepest, darkest Africa

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