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Alternative Fuel Saves Money and Trees in War-Torn Congo

Uvira, DRC: Banana peels, sugar cane and manioc are widely found in the trash piles that collect outside of homes in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. They're also the ingredients being used by environmental advocates to create a light, inexpensive cooking fuel that could ease deforestation in the region. Clement Kitambala, a Congolese advocate, and Ned Meerdink, an Advocacy Project (AP) Peace Fellow, came upon an idea online to make briquettes out of organic waste material. Mr...

DRC: Ebola outbreak “under control”

An epidemic of the haemorrhagic Ebola fever reported in Mweka and Luebo health zones in the southern province of Kasai Occidental is over, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) health ministry said. Some 32 cases, including 15 deaths, had been reported since 15 December, ministry spokesman Augustin Mopipi Mukulumania said on 16 February. The outbreak, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), was confirmed by laboratory tests at the Institut National de Recherches Biologiques in...

UNICEF welcomes release of 85 children from armed forces in North Kivu

Agency calls for release of all children from armed groups UNICEF welcomed today the release of 85 children by the Mayi Mayi armed group in North Kivu, Democratic Republic of the Congo. All 85 are now receiving protection and assistance from UNICEF and its partners who are also starting the process of trying to reunite the children with their families. “The release of these children is very encouraging as they can now start the long road to recovery,” said Ms. Pierrette Vu Thi, UNICEF...

UNICEF highlights deteriorating situation of children and women in eastern DRC

The escalation of conflict and upheaval of people from their homes and shelters have led to further violations of children's and women’s rights in eastern DRC, UNICEF said today. The children’s agency warned that the situation is deteriorating, and urged the world not to turn a blind eye to the plight of children and women in the DRC.

Congo agrees to rebel peace talks

The Democratic Republic of Congo government has agreed to a long-standing rebel demand for talks, to start on Monday, officials say.Until now, the Congolese government has refused calls for direct talks with General Laurent Nkunda's forces.

DRC-ZAMBIA: Kivu fighting slows refugee repatriation

LUSAKA Wednesday, November 26, 2008 (IRIN) - Fighting in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is jeopardising a voluntary repatriation programme for Congolese refugees in neighbouring Zambia, a senior UN refugee agency (UNHCR) official has said. "Just before the fighting erupted in the [eastern] Kivu region [of DRC], the number of refugees registering for voluntary repatriation in the Mwange and Kala camps [in northern Zambia] had shown a significant increase. But now, very few are...

DRC: State forces kill 500 over two years, says rights group

KINSHASA Tuesday, November 25, 2008 (IRIN) - Security forces in the Democratic Republic of Congo have killed some 500 political opponents over the past two years, with the full knowledge of the highest echelons of power, according to Human Rights Watch. The Kinshasa government rejected the allegations. A 96-page report, ‘We Will Crush You’: The Restriction of Political Space in the Democratic Republic of Congo, also reported the detention of 1,000 people and claimed many of these had been...

DRC: Fears for IDP safety following camp attack

KINSHASA Tuesday, November 25, 2008 (IRIN) - Fears for the safety of internally displaced persons (IDPs) have escalated after the weekend shooting of a civilian in Kibati camp, North Kivu province, in the east. "The alarming security incident at the sprawling Kibati I camp gave added urgency to plans to move up to 30,000 of the 67,000 [IDPs] in two camps to a new site," said David Thengwe, spokesman for the UN Refugee Agency (UNCHR) in Goma, North Kivu’s capital. The new site, Mugunga III,...

The general who holds Congo's fate in his hands

The renegade general whose sweeping advance last month triggered mass panic in Eastern Congo and threatened total humiliation for the UN's biggest peacekeeping force, is now casting himself as the peacemaker. Sitting with his trademark silver-topped cane resting between his legs, he says that there is a "peace process" now, but warns that if that changes he could march on the region's biggest city at any time: "If there is no solution and the answer is [to take] Goma, then we will go to Goma."

Congo: Rangers risk lives to guard gorillas as violence spreads

“I was worried about the gorillas and elephants,” Dusabimana John said, a ranger at Virunga National Park, standing amid ammunition discarded by rebels at the park headquarters in Rumangabo. “That's why I came back. I found myself thinking about them every day. In the war gorillas have been killed. If we are not here then no one can stop them being killed.”