Nairobi, Kenya | AFP | South Sudan will vaccinate key health workers against Ebola close to the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo, which faces a new epidemic, the World Health Organization said Monday. The ministry of health’s vaccination campaign, with cooperation from the WHO, will target healthcare and …
Read More »Nobel laureates urge world to help victims of rape in conflict
Oslo, Norway | AFP | Nobel laureates Denis Mukwege and Nadia Murad called on the world to protect victims of wartime sexual violence in their Peace Prize acceptance speeches on Monday, slamming indifference to the plight of women and children in conflict. Congolese gynecologist Mukwege, whose work has made him …
Read More »New Ebola drug tried in DR Congo
Kampala, Uganda | AGENCIES | An international research team has begun patient enrollment in a clinical trial testing multiple investigational Ebola therapies in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). The randomised, controlled trial is enrolling patients of any age with confirmed Ebola virus disease (EVD) at a treatment unit in …
Read More »Anti-Kabila rapper abducted in DR Congo: father
Bukavu, DR Congo | AFP | A rapper critical of outgoing President Joseph Kabila was abducted in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s eastern city of Bukavu overnight, his father told AFP on Sunday. Akim Bufole Corneille, 26, was taken by unidentified people as he left a karaoke party, where he …
Read More »Anti-govt rapper abducted as DR Congo vote tensions rise
Bukavu, DR Congo | AFP | A rapper critical of President Joseph Kabila was abducted in the eastern DR Congo overnight, his father said Sunday amid rising tensions two weeks ahead of landmark elections. Akim Bufole Corneille, 26, was taken by unidentified kidnappers as he left a party in Bukavu, …
Read More »Fight to end rape in war must begin in peacetime: Mukwege
Oslo, Norway | AFP | Congolese doctor Denis Mukwege may have won his Nobel prize for his work to end sexual violence in war, but the crusading surgeon said the groundwork for equality must be laid in peacetime, as he praised movements like #MeToo. Mukwege, whose work has made him …
Read More »Mukwege saviour to dozens of ‘little sisters’ raped in DRC village
Bukavu, DR Congo | AFP | Lucie was just seven years old when the men took her. She was found the next day, naked and bleeding, on the edge of the vast forested hills of Kahuzi Biega Park, in violence-plagued eastern DR Congo. “The militants entered the family home …
Read More »Haunted by colonial past, Belgium’s Africa museum reopens after revamp
Tervuren, Belgium | AFP | Belgium’s Africa Museum reopened on Saturday after a five-year restoration to repackage its looted treasures with a critical view of the country’s brutal colonial past. Deputy Prime Minister Alexander De Croo hailed a “historic moment” and said it would open “a new chapter” in Belgian-African …
Read More »Nobel laureates challenge world to end sexual violence
Oslo, Norway | AFP | Nobel peace laureates Nadia Murad and Denis Mukwege said Sunday they hoped their award would help them push the international community to act to end rape in conflict and deliver justice for victims. Yazidi activist Murad and Congolese doctor Mukwege will be jointly presented with …
Read More »DR Congo army officer arrested over murder of UN experts
Kananga, DR Congo | AFP | A DR Congo army officer suspected of involvement in the 2017 murder of two UN experts has been arrested by a military tribunal trying the case, the prosecutor said Friday. “Colonel Jean de Dieu Mambweni was arrested Thursday on suspicion of having prepared the …
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