Published first at  zambiareports.com Growing dissent within Democratic Republic of Congo military has forced President Joseph Kabila to cancel this year’s 58th Independence celebration. President Kabila is due to leave office in December when elections are held but signs that he is insisting on holding on power is provoking tension. Today, the DRC turns 58-years-old […]

During the 1990s, unprecedented violence erupted in Central Africa. In Sudan, the civil war intensified; in Rwanda, there was genocide; in Congo millions died in a conflict that simmers to this day; and in Uganda, millions more were caught between a heartless warlord and an even more heartless military counterinsurgency. This wasn’t supposed to happen. […]

Awkwardly sanctioned by the United States, François Olenga a general fallen out of favor ? By Jean-Jacques Wondo Omanyundu Army General – four stars – François Olenga Tete, Tetela of Katako Kombe of the clan of Patrice Emery Lumumba, born in Maniema, is the highest ranking Congolese military officer with General Didier Etumba, the general chief of staff- of the FARDC. […]

Joseph Kabila continues to over-equip his regime militarily for the upcoming political deadlines By Jean-Jacques Wondo Omanyundu In DRC, since early March 2018 we have witnessed a level of political hype, as if the elections planned for 23 December 2018 had become inevitable and certain. However, Joseph Kabila has clearly remained steadfast in his adherence […]

Initially published at mg.co.za       by Robert Shivambu DIPLOMACY Last week I read in the Mail & Guardian that International Relations and Co-operation Minister Lindiwe Sisulu has assembled a team of experts to review South Africa’s foreign policy. The story goes on to say that the team has been given a mandate “to move South Africa’s […]

Urgent Action Needed to Hold BGFIBank DRC to Account for New “Terrorist Treasury” Revelations, Hezbollah Financier Links. Report  originally published in thesentry.org Urgent Action Needed to Hold BGFIBank DRC to Account A major bank in the Democratic Republic of Congo run and partly owned by members of President Joseph Kabila’s family maintained accounts for companies […]

First published at Africa at LSE Judith Verweijen examines the impact of patronage networks on military cohesion within the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of Congo (FARDC). This article is part of the #PublicAuthority blog series, part of the ESRC-funded Centre for Public Authority and International Development.  Military cohesion is increasingly recognised as crucial for […]

UNITED NATIONS, Feb 12 (Reuters) – U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley on Monday asked the Congolese foreign minister to deliver a message to President Joseph Kabila about the killing of two U.N. investigators: “Please ask Mr. Kabila what he did with my list.” The list, which Haley told Kabila about when she […]

Initially published in globalresearch.ca An Interview with Economist Jean-Claude Maswana The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is the heart of Black Africa. Millions of Congolese have been murdered, massacred, enslaved, robbed of their resources, and driven from their homes since the Berlin Conference gave the “Congo Free State” to Belgium’s King Leopold II as his personal property […]

Garrison on Ugandan air strikes in the Democratic Republic of the Congo Interview with Boniface Musavuli   KPFA News Anchor: On Friday Uganda’s attack aircraft crossed the Uganda/Congo border to strike Beni Territory in eastern Congo’s North Kivu Province. At the same time Ugandan troops began firing long range weapons into Congo from the Ugandan […]

First published at congoresearchgroup.org On Thursday evening, a UN military base on the banks of the Semuliki river in northeastern Congo was attacked. According to initial news reports and conversations with Congolese army (FARDC) and MONUSCO officials, the attackers were wearing FARDC uniforms and attacked a small FARDC platoon next to the base before entering the compound. […]

Article published in hrw.org As President Joseph Kabila of the Democratic Republic of Congo tried to extend his rule beyond the constitutionally mandated two-term limit last December, senior Congolese security force officers secretly recruited former rebel fighters to violently crush protests against him, Human Rights Watch found in a new report. The officers brought in […]

A casus belli electoral calendar against Kabila ? By Jean-Jacques Wondo Omanyundu   In a brilliant analysis, the senior electoral expert and DESC analyst, Alain-Joseph Lomandja, described the electoral calendar published by the CENI as a “State Affair”, because the electoral process stagnates due to deliberately calculated maneuvers instigated by the political family of Joseph […]

Nigeria, DR Congo, Kenya and Uganda have the world’s worst police forces The already-sullied reputation of some of Africa’s largest police forces is in for more beating. Of 127 countries measured in the 2016 World Internal Security and Police Index, Nigeria’s police force ranks as the worst, just below DR Congo, Kenya and Uganda to […]

The original post was published at www.huffingtonpost.com U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, will land in Kinshasa on October 21. Her visit comes on the heels of a high-profile visit in the other direction, that of Daniel Lusadusu Nkiambi to Washington. Lusadusu met with several Congressman and Senators during his trip to talk […]

And the Threat It Poses to U.S. National Security For the last two decades, fighting has plagued the eastern region of the Democratic Republic of Congo, resulting in 5.4 million deaths, rampant corruption, and one of the highest rates of sexual violence in the world. The instability has already spread beyond the east as a […]

Colonel Daniel Lusadusu : The era of Joseph Kabila is now conjugated to the past By Jean-Jacques Wondo -DESC A graduate of the Royal Military Academy (ERM) in Belgium and doctor of medicine with an exemplary career in the Zairian Armed Forces (FAZ), Colonel Daniel Lusadusu discusses with DESC about security issues in DR Congo. This […]

After plundering minerals, soon the plundering of the Congo freshwater, the blue gold of this century By Sinaseli TSHIBWABWA   09 August 2017   The supposed «disappearance» of the Lake (Chad) through water abstraction and climate change is a popular myth that endures because it serves a large set of heterogeneous interests, including those supporting […]

LES MASSACRES DE BENI – LE LIVRE Boniface MUSAVULI The book on l the massacres of Beni is now available on https://www.amazon.com/dp/152170399X… For more than two years, at the rate of two attacks a week, whole families were massacred with machetes in the territory of Beni, in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, under cover of […]

Published in redpepper.org.uk  The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) continues to witness devastating political violence, but the world refuses to act. Ishiaba Kasonga and Serge Egola Angbakodolo ask why? In February 2017, a video filmed in the village of Mwanza Lomba went viral. It showed unarmed civilians – women and children – being massacred by soldiers of the state […]

Publish in campaign.r20.constantcontact.com On Friday, June 23 at 4:30 PM Kinshasa time, the Coordinator of the youth group Quatrieme Voie/Il Est Temps, Jean-Marie Kalonji was detained by the Congolese armed forces. On a visit to a family member, Congolese security forces stopped Jean-Marie in the Salongo neighborhood in the Lemba commune of Kinshasa. He was […]

Published in nytimes.com May 20 2017 by KIMIKO de FREYTAS-TAMURA and SOMINI SENGUPTA Zaida Catalán was on to something, and it was making her jumpy. “Exciting development,” she scribbled in her diary in late January. “I can maybe nail this bastard. Damn!” Weeks later, Ms. Catalán, a United Nations investigator with little training and no safety equipment or even […]

published at US defense.gov on May 17 2017 News Transcript Remarks by Secretary Mattis and Minister Lourenco at a Memorandum of Understanding Signing at the Pentagon Press Operations Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis; Angolan Minister of Defense Joao Lourenco May 17, 2017 SECRETARY OF DEFENSE JIM MATTIS:  Well, welcome to the Pentagon, Minister Lourenco.  And […]

Published in  newyorker.com  May 3, 2017 by Alexis Okeowo Publicly, Africa may not be on the radar of the Trump Administration, but it is a priority for the U.S. military. At the moment, seventeen hundred members of the Special Forces and other military personnel are undertaking ninety-six missions in twenty-one countries, and the details of most […]