Kinshasa, DR Congo | AFP | The powerful top aide to DR Congo’s President Felix Tshisekedi goes on trial for corruption on Monday in a case without precedent in the vast African country. Tshisekedi’s chief of staff Vital Kamerhe, who has been at the very heart of political life in DR …
Read More »Kinshasa fears spike in COVID-19 as 100 inmates infected
Kinshasa, DR Congo | AFP | The DR Congo government warned Tuesday of a “large-scale” spread of the COVID-19 pandemic after around 100 inmates of a military prison tested positive for the virus. “Contamination at the prisons could be a vector of large-scale propagation in our society, especially if it involves the Makala prison because …
Read More »Vendors starve as DRC protects rich and powerful from virus
Kinshasa, DR Congo | AFP | DR Congo has cordoned off the poshest and richest neighbourhood in its chaotic capital Kinshasa to protect it from coronavirus, dealing a body blow to thousands of street hawkers who earn a meagre living there. Gombe, a waterfront district housing ministries, top government officials, millionaires …
Read More »DR Congo Ebola outbreak still international emergency: WHO
Geneva, Switzerland | AFP | The World Health Organization said Tuesday it was extending its global emergency designation of the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo after fresh cases were detected. The announcement comes just a day after the vast central African country had been expected to announce that its outbreak was …
Read More »In DR Congo, a pioneering doctor fights Ebola and coronavirus
Kinshasa, DR Congo | AFP | Few generals would choose to fight a war on two fronts, against a foe that is nearly invisible and at times seems to have the terrifying ability to surface anywhere. Yet this is exactly the mission that Dr. Jean-Jacques Muyembe has taken upon himself, and …
Read More »DR Congo confines, disinfects business district to fight virus
Kinshasa, DR Congo | AFP | Kinshasa on Monday closed off its upmarket business district for two weeks and began a large-scale disinfection operation in a bid to clean up DR Congo’s main suspected source of coronavirus. Access to Gombe, which houses the country’s main institutions and foreign embassies, was barricaded off to everyone except …
Read More »Panic, confusion in DRC amid fears of virus explosion in Kinshasa
Kinshasa, DR Congo | AFP | Lack of resources, a muddle over confinement and incipient panic are hobbling the response to coronavirus in DR Congo, fuelling fears especially for Kinshasa, one of Africa’s largest and most chaotic cities. Almost all of the infections in the vast central African nation have occurred …
Read More »Ebola screening at entry points no longer necessary-WHO
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Even as Ebola Haemorrhagic fever outbreak is still on-going in DR Congo, the World Health Organization (WHO) says that the Emergency Committee does not consider entry screening at airports or other ports of entry outside the region to be necessary. In a statement issued …
Read More »Rights in DR Congo still under threat a year after change, Amnesty says
Kinshasa, DR Congo | AFP | Human rights remain at threat in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Amnesty International said on Friday in a report issued a year to the day since the country underwent historic change. Militia violence, ethnic clashes and failure to hold rights abusers to account dog the …
Read More »All you need to know as you trek up Rwenzori Mountains
Kampala, Uganda | Patricia Akankwatsa | The Rwenzori Mountains or better known as the Mountains of the Moon, are ranges located on the border between Uganda and DR Congo. The mountain ranges are home to the Rwenzori Mountains National Park in Uganda and Virunga National Park in the DR Congo as well …
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