Doin' the conga in the Congo

waltky · Aug 7, 2016

Air Force vet claims arrest, torture in Congo...

Air Force Vet Accuses Congo Officials of Unlawful Arrest, Torture
Aug 05, 2016 | WASHINGTON An American security contractor is accusing two top-ranking Congolese officials of ordering his detention and torture, declaring in a lawsuit that they demanded he confess falsely to being part of a plot to overthrow the country's government.

Darryl Lewis, an Air Force veteran, said in an Associated Press interview this week that he was illegally held in Congo's capital, Kinshasa, for nearly six weeks and interrogated for as many as 16 hours a day by members of Congo's national intelligence agency. Congo's intelligence chief, Kalev Mutond, and Congolese Justice Minister Alexis Thambwe Mwamba, "acted in concert" to have him detained, tortured and "threatened with indefinite imprisonment on false charges," according to the lawsuit, filed July 29 in federal court in Washington. "I feared for my life from the day they captured me," Lewis, 48, said. He said he never confessed.

Congo's ambassador, Francois Balumuene, said in a statement Thursday that Lewis was detained because he did not have the proper work permit. He denied Lewis had been mistreated and called his lawsuit "unsubstantiated allegations." Law enforcement authorities in Congo released Lewis on June 8 after "extensive diplomatic efforts and negotiations," the lawsuit said. Lewis is seeking at least $4.5 million in compensatory and punitive damages. The lawsuit comes amid mounting tensions ahead of November presidential elections in Congo. Opposition leaders claim that President Joseph Kabila wants to delay the vote so he can stay in power past his mandate that expires at the end of the year. The country's constitution bars Kabila from running for a third term.

Air Force veteran Darryl Lewis poses for a portrait at his home, Thursday, Aug. 4, 2016, in Smyrna, Ga.

Congo's relations with Washington have frayed over the past year due to repeated reports that Kabila's government has cracked down on political foes and activists. The U.S. Treasury Department in June sanctioned a top Congolese police official who activists say is linked to dozens of deaths. The department's statement announcing the sanctions against Celestin Kanyama noted a "pattern of repression" by Kabila's government. Lewis had been working as an unarmed security adviser for Moise Katumbi, Congo's leading opposition candidate for president. Katumbi, one of Kabila's harshest critics, has been charged separately by authorities in Congo with hiring mercenaries. Katumbi and his supporters have denied the allegation and say the move is aimed at derailing his bid for the presidency.

In the lawsuit, Mwamba is described as being convinced that Lewis and hundreds of other U.S. citizens had infiltrated Congo since last October to help Katumbi overthrow the government and assassinate Kabila. Lewis' military background made him especially suspect. At a May 4 press conference, Mwamba displayed as evidence a photo of Lewis holding a large machine gun. Lewis said the photo was taken in 2009 when he was working as a contractor in Kosovo. Congolese authorities must have pulled it from his LinkedIn account, he said. The photo has since been replaced with another of Lewis.

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waltky · Aug 15, 2016

In the deepest, darkest Africa...

Scores hacked to death in Democratic Republic of Congo
Aug. 14, 2016 -- At least 45 bodies have been found hacked to death in northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo, with more expected as the search continues.

The attack was reportedly carried out by suspected rebels, Al Jazeera reported. The attack happened Saturday night in the town of Beni's 's Rwangoma district, Beni Mayor Nyonyi Bwanakawa said. DRC troops recovered the machete-hacked bodies and said they expect to find even more, CRJ English News reported. Bwanakawa said at least 45 people were found dead. He said the assailants attacked the village of Rwangoma on the city's rim, killing civilians.

DR Congo President Joseph Kabila, who is staying in the province of North Kivu, labeled the massacre as terrorism. "The terrorist massacre happening at the moment in the east is not different from what happened in Mali, France, Somalia and other corners of the world," Kabila said. The Allied Democratic Forces, an armed group from Uganda and the suspected rebels, are responsible for the attack, CR Congo Army spokesman Mak Hazukay said.

Military operations are underway in the region to thwart the rebels in various parts of the province of North Kivu. Hazukay said the rebels slipped by the military to carry out the attack on civilians. The attack comes just a week after 14 people were killed in another incident near Beni. The ADF has been accused of human-rights violations and is believed to be involved in numerous criminal networks funded by kidnappings, smuggling and illegal logging. Since October 2014, more than 600 civilians have been killed in the Beni area.

http://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-N...epublic-of-Congo/6031471192900/?spt=sec&or=tn
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Rampaging South Sudan troops raped foreigners, killed local
Monday, August 15, 2016 - The soldier pointed his AK-47 at the female aid worker and gave her a choice. Either you have sex with me, or we make every man here rape you and then we shoot you in the head, she remembers him saying. She didnt really have a choice. By the end of the evening, she had been raped by 15 South Sudanese soldiers.

On July 11, South Sudanese troops, fresh from winning a battle in the capital, Juba, over opposition forces, went on a nearly four-hour rampage through a residential compound popular with foreigners, in one of the worst targeted attacks on aid workers in South Sudans three-year civil war. They shot dead a local journalist while forcing the foreigners to watch, raped several foreign women, singled out Americans, beat and robbed people and carried out mock executions, several witnesses told The Associated Press.

For hours throughout the assault, the U.N. peacekeeping force stationed less than a mile away refused to respond to desperate calls for help. Neither did embassies, including the U.S. Embassy. The Associated Press interviewed by phone eight survivors, both male and female, including three who said they were raped. The other five said they were beaten; one was shot. Most insisted on anonymity for their safety or to protect their organizations still operating in South Sudan. AP does not identify victims of sexual assault. The accounts highlight, in raw detail, the failure of the U.N. peacekeeping force to uphold its core mandate of protecting civilians, notably those just a few minutes drive away. U.N. peacekeepers in Juba have already been accused of not acting to stop the rapes of local women by soldiers outside the U.N.s main camp and within their sight last month.

Some of the more than 30,000 civilians sheltering in a United Nations base in South Sudan's capital Juba for fear of targeted killings by government forces walk by an armored vehicle and a watchtower manned by Chinese UN peacekeepers. According to reports from victims which have come to light Monday Aug. 15, 2016, South Sudanese troops, fresh from winning a battle against opposition forces in the capital, Juba, on July 11, 2016, went on a nearly four-hour rampage through a residential compound popular with foreigners, and the U.N. peacekeeping force stationed nearby are accused of refusing to respond to desperate calls for help.

The attack on the Terrain hotel complex shows the hostility toward foreigners and aid workers by troops under the command of South Sudans President Salva Kiir, who has been fighting supporters of rebel leader Riek Machar since civil war erupted in December 2013. Both sides have been accused of abuses. The U.N. recently passed a U.S. resolution to send more peacekeeping troops to protect civilians. Army spokesman Lul Ruai did not deny the attack at the Terrain but said it was premature to conclude the army was responsible. Everyone is armed, and everyone has access to uniforms and we have people from other organized forces, but it was definitely done by people of South Sudan and by armed people of Juba, he said.

A report on the incident compiled by the Terrains owner at Ruais request, seen by the AP, alleges that at least five women were raped, torture, mock executions, beatings and looting. An unknown number of South Sudanese women were also assaulted. The attack came just as people in Juba were thinking the worst was over. Three days earlier, gunfire had erupted outside the presidential compound between armed supporters of the two sides in South Sudans civil war, at the time pushed together under an uneasy peace deal. The violence quickly spread across the city.

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waltky · Nov 28, 2016

Children suffer the most in the war in Congo...

Silent victims of violence: 4 million kids orphaned in Congo
Nov 28,`16 -- More than 4 million children have lost at least one parent in Congo over the past two decades, the silent victims of continuous cycles of violence.

And more than 26 million orphans live in West and Central Africa, where Congo is located - the second highest number in the world behind South Asia, according to the United Nations. These children have grown up amid conflict fueled by ethnic strife and the fight over Congo's valuable minerals. The violence and displacement are eroding the tradition of families caring for their own. The breakdown in family means some orphans are forced to look after themselves and their younger siblings. Some are vulnerable to recruitment by armed groups. And many also face sexual exploitation, in a country where rape has become commonplace on the streets. "They are the orphans with a story of violence since 1994 - it's a generation of victims that continues," says Francisca Ichimpaye, a senior monitor at the En Avant Les Enfants INUKA center. And the children "lose their story in the violence." As Congo falls once again into violence in the face of a delayed election, here are profiles of some orphans in Goma.

ALPHA MELEKI, 6

Alpha Meleki was found in a pile of bodies after an attack by rebels on his village in Congo's eastern Beni earlier this year. He had been shot and left for dead with his parents in the bush. The bullet wounds and the vine-like surgery scar on the 6-year-old's pudgy belly have only recently healed. He hobbles around, pulling his loose shorts up on his tiny body. The emotional scars are still fresh. When held by someone new, Alpha sits limply. His large eyes glaze over, and sometimes glare with angry distrust. He saves his smiles for those he trusts, often seeking the hands of adults he knows. He cannot stand to see others suffer. Whenever another child at the INUKA center needs medical attention, Alpha cries and screams. In a quiet moment, he touches a short, wide scar on his head. He lets others touch it. "They hit me with a machete," he recalls. The center says it could take years to find any family members, as attacks persist in the northeast.

Six-year-old Alpha Meleki plays in the yard at the En Avant Les Enfants INUKA center in Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo. Meleki survived an attack from ADF rebels on his village that left over 20 dead including his parents in Beni in January 2016. Rescuers found Meleki in a pile of bodies with a bullet wound to his belly.

JEANNETTE UMUTSI, 17

At 17, Jeannette Umutsi has become the caregiver for her little brother, whom she hopes to protect from the horrors she has seen. At first she recounts her story stoically and with distance. She was born only a few years after Rwanda's 1994 genocide spilled into Congo. Armed fighters stormed her home, hit her in the leg with a shovel and nearly killed her sister. She and her family fled her hometown of Kirolarwe in 2008 to escape the violence. In the next village, she hid in a toilet enclosure with wooden plank floors for three days to save herself from another attack. Alone, she would sneak out to grab tomatoes that grew nearby. For days, she heard gunshots and saw dead bodies, including that of her uncle. As she continues to talk of violence, she breaks down into tears and gasps. "I have so many nightmares now. So many nightmares," she says.

Her mother returned to save her. But she later died after giving birth to her brother Shukuru, now 5. Her father used to be a fighter, she says. Once, he threatened to kill her with a machete. As she talks about him, she folds over herself, head in her skirt, and the fear is palpable in her eyes. Finally she fled the family. She wrapped Shukuru up, put him on her back, and walked for days, struggling to breathe, on the way to Camp Mugunga in Goma. She is now an older sister to more than a dozen other children at the INUKA center, where she helps cook the fish and rice for lunch and rounds the kids up for naps.

MOISE, 7, AND AGATA MUNOKA, 5
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waltky · Dec 30, 2016

Bein' a child soldier to escape poverty in the Congo...

To escape poverty, girls are choosing to be child soldiers in the DRC
Dec. 29, 2016 -Throughout the decades-long conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo, children have been abducted and made to serve as soldiers. While most are male, it is estimated over a third are female, used mainly as domestic and sexual servants, but sometimes as fighters. Now the London-based NGO Child Soldiers International has released a report showing that many of the girls in armed groups weren't enlisted by force. They joined of their own free will driven by poverty and a lack of access to education.

The NGO interviewed over 200 female former child soldiers following their escape from local militia groups, collectively known as the Mai Mai. The researchers found that many of the girls who had joined by choice cited the burden of school fees as their primary reason. Education was beyond their reach, but life with an armed group would at least offer them food, security and, they thought, better opportunities. "I was pushed out of school for failing to pay the fees, so instead of roaming aimlessly in town, it was better to go and help [the militia] in the bush," one girl was quoted as saying in CSI's report. "Sometimes they join the Mai Mai encouraged by their parents, who think that providing their children to the armed group can protect the family against attacks and looting," says Sandra Olsson, spokeswoman for CSI. "Although it may sound like a choice, in reality it could be their only option to escape a life of utter poverty or to protect themselves from constant and terrifying attacks on their villages."

But for all the girls who join, whether voluntarily or by force, the reality is that life under the control of armed groups is one of servitude and abuse. As one of the girls interviewed by CSI put it: "Life in the bush was only suffering." The girls said they were used as domestic servants and sex slaves. Many were repeatedly raped, often by different men, and drugged. "I would wake up and find myself naked," one victim told the researcher. "They gave us drugs so that we would not get tired of all of them using us." The girls also described how they were forced to loot goods and then carry the heavy spoils through the bush, for hours and sometimes days. Those who were too weak to carry their pillaged load were killed.

People take part in a demonstration against Congolese President Joseph Kabila in Brussels, Belgium, on December 17. Demonstrators demand the respect of the constitution in the Democratic Republic of Congo and the departure of Joseph Kabila after the end of his second mandate.

But for many of the girls, escape offered little relief. When they finally make it back home, girls who have been living with the Mai Mai are "often stigmatized and rejected by the community and also experience difficulties in rehabilitation," says Dede Nkuluba, spokeswoman for Reconfort, a local organization that helps reintegrate former child soldiers. The assumption that all female child soldiers are used for sex leads to many of them becoming isolated and, as a result, living in poverty. "For the majority of girls we interviewed, we were struck to find out that a major source of distress came from the current stigmatization, if not outright rejection, they faced when they finally returned home, because [in their words], they had 'known men in the bush,'" says the CSI's Olsson. "Some of the girls we talked to even said that they had considered going back because they couldn't take the pain of being stigmatized and excluded from community life," she says. Furthermore, advocates believe this stigma could explain why many girls choose to stay in the militias and suffer.

Though it's difficult to get accurate figures for the number of girls within the Mai Mai, the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo estimates that girls make up around 30 to 40 percent of children in armed groups. Between January 2009 and November 2015, out of 8,546 former child soldiers registered by MONUSCO, only 7 percent were girls. That leaves a disproportionately high number of girls either unaccounted for or still serving as members of the armed groups. The former female child soldiers who spoke to CSI researchers said that when they escaped, they left many girls behind. As well as fearing rejection by their communities, girls within the groups are often subjected to stricter security measures than boys. And during demobilization, girls aren't considered soldiers but "wives" and, in some cases, mothers, so they are often held back, or hidden away, when militia commanders hand over the children in their ranks to child-protection agencies.

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Doin' the conga in the Congo

waltky Well-Known Member

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