First published at www.thenation.com In 2003, three American college friends set out for Uganda. As they traveled through the north of the country, they were so moved by the suffering caused by the conflict between the government and the warlord Joseph Kony that they started an NGO called Invisible Children to spread awareness about the […]

First published at  africanarguments.org On 10 March, the US Department of State designated a rebel group operating in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) as a foreign terrorist organisation. Referring to it as the “Islamic State of Iraq and Syria – Democratic Republic of the Congo (ISIS-DRC)”, it placed the group under strict sanctions. […]

The US State Department has referred to the threat of Islamist terrorism in eastern Congo using a meaningful acronym: ISIS-DRC. In his note of March 10, 2021, the State Department designates a man by name: Seka Musa Baluku, as the head of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria in the Democratic Republic of Congo. We conducted […]

Luca Attanasio, the Italian Ambassador in Kinshasa was killed on Monday February 22, 2021 in Kibumba, north of Goma in the province of North Kivu, by bullets during an armed attack that targeted a convoy of the Program world food (WFP). He had been invited to visit food distribution centers managed by WFP. The ambassador […]

First published at issafrica.org Two years after winning the historic 2018 election, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) President Félix Tshisekedi recently dismantled the governing alliance he’d sealed with former president Joseph Kabila. But who will benefit from the new political dispensation – the office of the president, or the rule of law in the […]

First published at mg.co.za NEWS ANALYSIS In mid-2011, Matthew Page and his team at the United States Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA) began to suspect something was awry in Mali. As the DIA’s senior analyst for West Africa, Page had access to highly-classified signals intelligence from the National Security Agency and reports from the department of […]

Two years after his accession to power, what can we learn from the governance of President Félix Tshisekedi when he is trying to set up a new heterogeneous political coalition to support his political action ? On the political level: a political cacophony that incapacitates presidential action  The day after he came to power in January 2019, after elections whose results were contested by several […]

First published at https://www.hrw.org/news/2021/01/28/dr-congo-repression-escalates Crackdown on Media, Dissent, Protests (Kinshasa) – President Felix Tshisekedi’s administration in the Democratic Republic of Congo has increasingly cracked down on the media and activist groups during its two years in office. Despite some initial steps to advance a human rights agenda, the government has threatened, arbitrarily arrested and detained, […]

First published at foreignpolicy.com Proxy wars pitting France and Chad against Russia and Rwanda threaten to destabilize the entire region while subjecting Central Africans to more violence and instability. BANGUI, Central African Republic—Citizens of the Central African Republic (CAR) went to the polls on Dec. 27 to select their next president and legislature. But even […]

First published at  issafrica.org Is more robust engagement needed to neutralise armed groups unwilling to give peace a chance? On 27 December 2020, citizens of the Central African Republic (CAR) were called to elect their president and 140 Members of Parliament amid renewed violence between non-state armed groups. The security situation had worsened after the […]

First published at https://mg.co.za   COMMENT As the sun set on 2020, a year primarily defined by the Covid-19 pandemic, all segments of society in Africa have been affected. Some areas suffered more than others, but none have been spared. In the democracy and good governance space, analysts, civil society groups, donors, and implementers worried […]

First published at buzzfeednews.com Congo suffered under the rule of Joseph Kabila, but an audacious lobbying campaign helped him get what he wanted out of the Trump administration. KINSHASA, Congo — An important client needed help, and it didn’t matter to Mer Security and Communication Systems that he was an authoritarian ruler who had crushed […]

First published at africanarguments.org Tshisekedi has liberated himself from his rivals, but it remains to be seen if this will be a victory for the country or just his political camp. There aren’t many people who will end 2020 feeling that it’s been a good year. President Felix Tshisekedi of the Democratic Republic of Congo […]

First published at mg.co.za For years, UN investigators secretly compiled evidence that implicated Rwandan President Paul Kagame and other high-level officials in mass killings before, during and after the 1994 Rwandan genocide. The explosive evidence came from Tutsi soldiers who broke with the regime and risked their lives to expose what they knew. Their sworn […]

One year after the launch of military operations on the orders of President Tshisekedi in Beni territory, his first operations as Head of State and Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, the result is clear : a fiasco ! Seven civilians killed with machetes in Kokola, Tuesday, November 17, 2020 ; 29 decomposing bodies found on Monday November 16 near Muhalika in the […]

The President of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Félix Tshisekedi, went to Luanda on Monday, October 16, 2020 for a short working visit with his Angolan counterpart João Lourenço. Tshisekedi visits Angola seeking diplomatic and military support against Kabila Speaking to the press after the meeting, Tshisekedi revealed that he had come to Luanda to […]

First published at passblue.com The United Nations Secretary-General, António Guterres, has so far remained silent on the United States Nov. 3 presidential election, despite concerns about possible violence in the country and President Trump having prematurely proclaimed victory. Indeed, the UN warned its personnel at New York headquarters to be prepared for “civil unrest” that […]

First published  at  e-activist.com Arrest Guidon and His Abusive Commanders; Investigate Army Backers (Goma, October 20, 2020) – Congolese authorities have not arrested a rebel commander wanted for multiple crimes under a June 2019 warrant even as his forces have continued to carry out summary killings, rapes and sexual slavery, extortion, and forced recruitment of […]

First published at thedailybeast.com ABUJA, Nigeria—Civil society groups in the Democratic Republic of Congo are petitioning the country’s government to investigate millions of dollars paid by the administration of then-President Joseph Kabila to an Israeli firm associated with Donald Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani. The firm’s goal: to help the Central African nation escape further […]

On December 9, 2019, the European Council decided to maintain the sanctions which, since December 2016 and May 2017, have targeted several Congolese personalities accused of serious human rights violations and of obstructing the electoral process. These sanctions target several relatives of Joseph Kabila, the former Congolese president. These “ individual restrictive measures ” – the freezing of assets and the […]

First published At saiia.org.za The countries of the Great Lakes region face the possibility of rising regional tensions which could lead to renewed violence. Summary In order to effectively address instability in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and rising political tensions in the wider Great Lakes region, a strong, regionally rooted political process is […]

Introduction By navigating the history of the the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) this essay will discuss the negative implications of violent regime change. Both violent regime changes, manufactured by foreign governments to secure their interests and those arising from internal political frustrations mostly on ethnical / tribal adherance’ grounds, on the long-term democratic […]

Announced with great fanfare by the Congolese Presidency, its press and communication organs, as well as the Congolese media, the mini-summit of heads of state of the Great Lakes region which was to meet this weekend at the Goma Hotel Serena : Presidents Yoweri Museveni of Uganda, Paul Kagame of Rwanda, Evariste Ndayishimiye of Burundi, […]

Introduction This short essay argues that, seven decades after its creation, the United Nations as a global governance body has not been entirely successful in attaining the expectations of its founders. This has been true at both the international and regional levels. The failure to meet its objectives has been a result of both a […]