Kinshasa, DR Congo | AFP | Hundreds of people have been killed or raped in attacks on the Hema ethnic group in eastern DR Congo’s Ituri province, in what “may amount to crimes against humanity” or even genocide, the UN said on Friday. “At least 701 people have been killed and …
Read More »Refugees in Uganda stuck in debt, danger and despair- Report
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | As the other settlement areas have been filled up with refugees, new land is made ready for new arrivals of refugees from DR Congo in Mararatu. Grass and shrubs are burnt and plots made available. Desperate refugees in Uganda are adopting grim survival tactics due …
Read More »Second Ebola vaccine introduced in DR Congo
Goma, DR Congo | AFP | Authorities in the Democratic Republic of Congo Thursday introduced a second vaccine to fight the deadly Ebola virus in the east of the country, the Doctors Without Borders (MSF) charity said. It said the new vaccine, produced by a Belgian subsidiary of Johnson & …
Read More »4 Burundian journalists held for undermining state security
Nairobi, Kenya | AFP | Four journalists and their driver are still being held in Burundi after being arrested for undermining national security while covering a rebel attack from neighbouring DR Congo, the attorney general said. The Burundian reporters were detained on Tuesday last week while reporting in Bubanza, in the …
Read More »Uganda seeks MoU with Congo to formalize collaborations in Ebola response
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | There are a number of collaboration issues that need to be ironed out by governments of Uganda and the neighboring DR Congo regarding the involvement of both countries in responding to the outbreak of the Ebola hemorrhagic fever that has been active for more …
Read More »Children on front line of fight to stop spread of Ebola
Mpondwe, Uganda | AFP | Before dawn, Congolese teenager Doneka Kabowo sets off for school in Uganda, negotiating miles of jungle, the threat of armed militias and an international border to reach her classroom. Every weekday morning, yet another obstacle stands in the way of 15-year-old Kabowo and hundreds of other …
Read More »Congo’s bread basket struggles to recover from conflict
Mindouli, Congo | AFP | “The trains are running again. We have peace,” says Didier, the station master at Mindouli, in the Republic of Congo’s southern region of Pool. But a glance at the weeds growing on the line connecting the capital Brazzaville and the port city of Pointe-Noire shows that …
Read More »Border friction in DR Congo on anniversary of Ebola outbreak
Goma, DR Congo | AFP | An Ebola epidemic in eastern DR Congo marked its first anniversary on Thursday with two more cases in the densely-populated frontier city of Goma and accusations by Kinshasa that Rwanda had rushed to shutter its border in response to the crisis. The two new cases …
Read More »Rwanda shuts DR Congo border after Ebola cases in frontier city
Goma, DR Congo | AFP | Rwanda has shuttered its frontier with Ebola-hit Democratic Republic of Congo after a third case of the deadly virus was detected in the border city of Goma, the Congolese presidency said Thursday. The announcement coincided with the first anniversary of an epidemic that has claimed …
Read More »DR Congo Ebola epidemic widens on eve of first anniversary
Goma, DR Congo | AFP | An epidemic of Ebola in eastern DR Congo sharply widened on Wednesday, the eve of the first anniversary of the outbreak, with the announcement of a death in a major city and the quarantining of 15 people in a province that had previously escaped the …
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