Congolese opposition parties, meeting in Johannesburg this week, said they will agree on a single candidate to challenge President Joseph Kabila in a December election by mid-November (Agence France-Presse)
UN Security Council Delegation Heads to DRC
A delegation for the UN Security Council will arrive in Kinshasa today to meet with top Congolese officials ahead of a planned December election. Countries including Britain, France, and the United States have called on President Joseph Kabila to publicly state that he will not seek another term (Agence France-Presse)
Attack in the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s North Kivu Kills Twenty-One
Attackers used guns and machetes, killing twenty-one people in the city of Beni on September 22. This forced aid groups to halt Ebola prevention activities (Reuters)
Court Bans Opposition Leader From DRC Election
A top court in the Democratic Republic of Congo barred Jean-Pierre Bemba, a former rebel leader and vice president, from running in a planned December election due to a witness-tampering conviction at the International Criminal Court (Deutsche Welle)
Acquitted Former Rebel Leader Returns to DRC
Jean-Pierre Bemba returned to the Democratic Republic of Congo and formally launched his presidential bid in elections expected in December. Bemba was acquitted of war crimes charges by the International Criminal Court in June (Al Jazeera)
DRC President Puts Off Diplomatic Meetings
President Joseph Kabila postponed a visit from UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and African Union Commission Chairman Moussa Fake Mahamat, and refused to meet with U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley (Reuters)
Ebola Outbreak ‘Stabilizing’ But Not Over, Says WHO
The head of the World Health Organization, in the Democratic Republic of Congo yesterday, said the fast deployment of an experimental vaccine and effective management of confirmed Ebola cases were behind the stabilization of an outbreak in the country’s northwest. Twenty-seven people have died in the outbreak (Reuters)
Ebola Outbreak Spreads to DRC City
The Democratic Republic of Congo’s health minister said yesterday a case of the Ebola virus was detected in Mbandaka, an urban center of more than a million people; cases had so far been restricted to the rural area of Bikoro, about ninety miles from Mbandaka, in the country’s northwest. The current outbreak is already believed to have killed twenty-three people among more than forty known cases (CNN)
WHO to Use Experimental Ebola Vaccine in DRC
The Congolese government approved the use of an experimental vaccine for the Ebola virus disease that was developed in Canada and first tested in Guinea. It will first be offered to health workers treating Ebola patients (Associated Press)
Ebola Outbreak Confirmed in DRC
At least seventeen people have died in an outbreak of the Ebola virus in northwestern Democratic Republic of Congo, the health ministry said yesterday. Teams from the World Health Organization and Doctors Without Borders have been dispatched to the region (BBC)
UN Calls for End to DRC Ban on Demonstrations
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called on Democratic Republic of Congo President Joseph Kabila’s government to lift a ban on public protests ahead of presidential and legislative elections slated for December (Associated Press)
Southern African Leaders Meet Over DRC Crisis
Southern Africa’s economic and development bloc will meet today in the Angolan capital to discuss repeatedly delayed elections in the Democratic Republic of Congo. President Joseph Kabila, whose term was due to expire at the end of 2016, may not attend (Voice of America)
Thousands Flee DRC as Ethnic Violence Spikes
Over four thousand people fled to Uganda from the Democratic Republic of Congo last weekend, bringing the number of refugees displaced by violence in the eastern part of the country to at least 57,000 since January, according to the UN (UNHCR)
Dozens Killed in DRC Clashes
At least forty people have been killed over the past two days in clashes between farmers and cattle herders from two ethnic groups in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s northeastern Ituri Province (Al Jazeera)
Four Killed, Dozens Wounded in Anti-Government Protests in DRC
Four people were reportedly killed by security forces in the Democratic Republic of Congo yesterday during nationwide protests against President Joseph Kabila and long-delayed elections. The UN Mission in Congo said that nearly fifty people were wounded and more than one hundred were arrested (Associated Press)
Thousands Flee Violence in Democratic Republic of Congo
A UN Refugee Agency spokesperson warned of a “humanitarian disaster of extraordinary proportions” developing in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s southeast Tanganyika Province. Thousands of people have fled violence in recent weeks, sparked by intercommunal conflicts between several ethnic groups and clashes between the military and various militias, with widespread reports of atrocities and human rights abuses (Al Jazeera)
Clashes Between DRC and Rwandan Soldiers Kill Five
Five soldier from the Democratic Republic of Congo army were killed, and six were injured, in a clash with the Rwandan army. The clash took place along the disputed border and could risk inflaming tensions between DRC and Rwanda (Reuters)
Haley Calls on DRC to Respond to UN Killings
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley has called on Congolese President Joseph Kabila to pursue individuals the United States believes were involved in the killings of American and Swedish human rights investigators in the Democratic Republic of Congo last year (Voice of America)
Six Killed in Clashes With DRC Forces
At least six people were killed and dozens injured when security forces fired on anti-government protesters in the capital of Kinshasa yesterday. The demonstration, organized by the Catholic Church, called on President Joseph Kabila to step down (Deutsche Welle)
UN Launches Funding Appeal to Address ‘Dramatic Deterioration’ in DRC
UN agencies and relief partners launched an appeal for $1.68 billion, aiming to reach 10.5 million vulnerable people in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where over 13 million are in need of assistance. The UN Humanitarian Coordinator for DRC said that the country is grappling with one of the world’s largest, most acute, and complex humanitarian crisis (UN News Center)
UN Chief Urges DRC to Uphold Election Schedule
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said there is a “real risk” that the Congolese government will continue to delay a long-awaited presidential election, which was rescheduled for December 2018 (Voice of America)
UN Peacekeepers Killed in DRC
At least fifteen UN peacekeepers were killed and more than fifty wounded in an attack in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s North Kivu province yesterday. UN officials said they suspect the Allied Democratic Forces rebel group was behind the attack (Washington Post)
U.S. Commends DRC on New Election Schedule
The U.S. State Department said it “notes the importance” of an announcement this week by the Democratic Republic of Congo’s electoral commission that a long-awaited election to replace President Joseph Kabila will be held December 2018 (Africa News)
Thousands of Refugees Flee DRC for Zambia
At least 3,360 people have fled since August 30 to Zambia from the Democratic Republic of Congo, where security forces and militias are fighting in the southeast, according to the United Nations (Voice of America)
DRC Claims Preparations for Elections
President Joseph Kabila said in a speech to the UN that the publication of an electoral calendar should be “forthcoming” (Bloomberg)