The Strange Tale of the Georgians in Congo

https://www.bellingcat.com/news/africa/2017/06/26/strange-tale-georgians-congo/

This research aims at investigating an incident in North Kivu, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), which reportedly involved two combat helicopters piloted by foreign staff.

The main objective is to obtain more clarity on the presence of private military companies (or contractors), also known as PMCs, in DRC in particular. The nature of their relationship with the nation-state actors active on the territory – namely, the FARDC (DRC Army) as well as the FAC (DRC Air Force) – will also be examined.

Key Findings

The research points to the possibility that foreign military pilots active in DRC act as trainers and mentors for the local troops.
The gathered information leads to the possibility that such pilots also take active part in FARDC military operations in North Kivu.
It appears likely that, while the presence of PMCs in DRC has a long history, the examined presence of private military staff in Goma and North Kivu in support of the FAC was initiated, or escalated, in early 2014, in correspondence of a resurgence of conflict with one of the militias active in the province.
Mining interests in North Kivu, in conjunction with the ineffectiveness of the FARDC, could represent a lead motive for the involvement of PMCs in the area.

"The peculiarity of the incident is in the helicopter crews of both Mi-24s. One crew, reportedly, consisted of two Georgian pilots, one of which turned out to have been taken prisoner by the M23 attackers, or transferred to a linked group; while the other crew consisted of two Belarusian men. Both crews were reportedly in DRC on “private contracts”, but it remained unclear why they were piloting — or at least on board of — FAC combat helicopters in an active conflict area.

...

Who are the Bana Mura?

Last year, an anti-government rebel group named Kamuina Nsapu sprang up in the opposition-dominated Kasai region. As the insurrection spread, human rights groups accused both the rebels and the Congolese army of committing atrocities.

In recent months, a new militia appeared, calling itself the Bana Mura. Filled with ethnic rivals of the Kamuina Nsapu, the militia appears to have been created, armed and supported by the government, according to Hussein, the U.N. human rights commissioner.

In the last two months, the Bana Mura carried out horrific attacks on villages aligned with the rebels, he said.

“My team saw children as young as 2 whose limbs had been chopped off. Many babies had machete wounds and severe burns,” Hussein said.

“One 2-month-old baby seen by my team had been hit by two bullets four hours after birth. The mother was also wounded. At least two pregnant women were sliced open and their fetuses mutilated.”

He said witnesses testified that members of the Congolese armed forces and police accompanied Bana Mura during its attacks while government agents or officials had armed and directed the group.

Fears surge of a fresh war in Congo's Nord-Kivu

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/afp/article-4647502/Fears-surge-fresh-war-Congos-Nord-Kivu.html

The governor of Congo's restive eastern province of Nord-Kivu urged the army Wednesday to beef up operations against a spate of militia attacks there, saying all-out war may be imminent.

"I am alerting in particular the army chief of staff to refocus its strategy after these new incursions. There is a looming threat of a fresh war," Julien Paluku told a press conference.

An unprecedented string of attacks in the last few days against border posts and army positions in DR Congo's troubled east have been attributed to the Mai-Mai, a "self-defence" militia comprising members of several ethnic groups in the region.

Congo Skips Independence Day Parade For Security Reasons

http://ewn.co.za/2017/06/29/congo-skips-independence-day-parade-for-security-reasons

KINSHASA - Democratic Republic of Congo will not hold its annual independence day military parade on Friday because of security concerns, an adviser to President Joseph Kabila said on Thursday.

Congo's independence day parades, held each of the last three years, are usually festive events that mark the end of Belgian colonial rule in 1960 and have been used to show off the Central African country's latest arms acquisitions.

But rising militia violence, a growing humanitarian crisis and a spate of prison breaks have unsettled Africa's largest copper producer in recent months, adding to an already tense political climate.

Kabila refused to step down at the end of his mandate in December, increasing instability and raising fears of a backslide to the civil wars of the turn of the century that killed millions.

Militia violence shutters Banro gold mine in east Congo

https://www.reuters.com/article/banro-congo-violence-idUSL3N1JU48L

Fighting between the Congolese army and a local militia in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo has forced Banro Corp's Namoya gold mine to suspend all operations and temporarily evacuate its staff, the company said on Monday.

Twenty-three trucks belonging to a contractor of the mine were caught in cross-fire between soldiers and a local self-defense militia - identified by the army as Mai-Mai Yakutumba - near the town of Lulimba, Banro said in a statement.

DR Congo’s economy loses over $1 billion to child undernutrition, finds UN-backed study

http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=57136#.WWJq5ojyvIU

The economy of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is losing as much as 4.5 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) to the effects of child undernutrition, according to a United Nations-backed study released today.

The social and economic costs of undernutrition are estimated at 1.637 billion Congolese francs, or more than $1 billion a year.

DR Congo: Opposition blasts prospect of delayed polls

http://aa.com.tr/en/africa/dr-congo-opposition-blasts-prospect-of-delayed-polls/858120

Democratic Republic of Congo opposition parties and human rights activists on Monday blasted the country’s elections chief saying that polls to elect a new president are unlikely this year.

"The parameters at our disposal give us, more or less, reason to think that, in December, it will probably not be possible to stick to that date," Corneille Nangaa told France's TV5Monde on Sunday, referring to a December deadline set under an agreement reached late last year.

Nangaa cited security concerns in the central African country's Kasai region and a lack of resources as the main factors holding back elections this year.

But Francis Kale, a chief mobilizer in the opposition coalition, told Anadolu Agency on Monday: ''The deadline must be respected. Elections must be held before the end of this year. We will cause chaos if they are not held. We will hold demonstrations''.

Andre Claudel Lubaya, leader of the opposition UDA party, Sunday called on Nangaa to resign, along with President Joseph Kabila as he failed to hold elections within the deadline.

Hubert Tshiswaka, director of the Human Rights Research Institute, in a statement Monday condemned Nangaa’s announcement, saying he expects an electoral program instead.

When Kabila failed to leave office after his term expired last December, the opposition held riots in which dozens of people died. In peace talks brokered by Catholic bishops, it was agreed that new elections would be held by the end of 2017.

Congolese citizens should divide the wealth up equally amongst themselves screw the cheap talk

US threatens sanctions on anyone delaying DR Congo vote

The United States on Tuesday threatened to impose further targeted unilateral sanctions on anyone who hinders Democratic Republic of Congo's already delayed preparations for an election to replace President Joseph Kabila.

The country's election commission president said on Sunday that the vote, originally due in November 2016, was unlikely to take place in 2017, because of delays in registering millions of voters.

Further delays could trigger additional unrest following anti-government street protests last year in which security forces killed dozens of demonstrators. The opposition quickly denounced Sunday's announcement as a declaration of "war".

"We are ready to take additional action to sanction those who stand in the way of DRC's first democratic transition of power," US Deputy Ambassador to the United Nations Michele Sison told the UN Security Council.

Kabila should step outside of the hut for a minute and see the image he's helping to paint for the black collective

Congo's forgotten war

http://theweek.com/articles/711748/congos-forgotten-war

What is happening?

A political crisis that has simmered for decades has exploded into a new civil war, engulfing south-central Congo in mass butchery and chaos. Since October, at least 3,400 people have been killed in the Kasai region, and in such gruesome ways that more than 1.3 million people have fled their homes in terror. "My team saw children as young as 2 whose limbs had been chopped off," said U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein. "Many babies had machete wounds and severe burns." The government of President Joseph Kabila appears to be behind some of the atrocities. After the rebel faction Kamuina Nsapu rose up last fall against Kabila's government, both the Congolese army and the rebels engaged in atrocities. But the most horrific attacks in recent months have been the work of a new militia, Bana Mura, which the U.N. says was created and armed by Kabila's government. Bana Mura militants, of a different ethnic group than the Kamwina Nsapu, have slaughtered whole villages, going door-to-door and killing everyone they found — babies, parents, grandparents.

Congo civil servants call strike over wages as crisis bites

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/2017/07/21/congo-civil-servants-call-strike-over-wages-as-crisis-bites_c1601860

Civil service leaders called a strike in DRC on Friday, demanding pay rises to help workers cope with a mounting economic crisis.

The franc has lost 40 per cent of its value in the past year, with a particularly sharp decline over the past week, amid political turmoil and persistently low prices for Congo's key commodity exports.

Inflation is expected to top 30 per cent this year, but wages remain unchanged.

The government had agreed to raise wages but not delivered, the Collective of Syndicates of the Public Administration said at a meeting in the capital Kinshasa.he body "asks all its comrades from all ministries to close their offices and to no longer go to work until payment for the month of July is executed at the budgetary rate," the union's vice president, Francois Tshimanga, told the assembly.

The government has requested financial support from the International Monetary Fund and other donors to help it restore its reserves and stabilize the franc.

‘I’m a Civilian. I’m Innocent’: Who’s in Congo’s Mass Graves?

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/28/world/africa/congo-kasai-kabila-militia-graves.html

“It’s the worst humanitarian and human rights crisis in a decade, when both sides have committed serious crimes,” said Jose Maria Aranaz, who leads the human rights division of the United Nations mission in Congo, called Monusco. There is a pattern of prosecuting rank-and-file individuals but not commanders, he said. Unless military and political leaders are held to account, he said, “the cycle of impunity will continue.”

Journalists detained, harassed, beaten covering Congo protests

https://cpj.org/2017/08/journalists-detained-harassed-beaten-covering-cong.php

Security forces harassed, detained, or beat at least 18 journalists across the country on July 31 as they covered anti-government protests, according to media reports and Congolese press freedom advocates. Security forces released all of the journalists by the end of the day, but deleted many of the journalists' photographs and recordings first. Security forces arrested more than 100 people in the nationwide protests demanding that President Joseph Kabila leave office by the end of the year, according to media reports.

DR Congo opposition leader Tshisekedi's body to be repatriated

http://www.newvision.co.ug/new_vision/news/1459707/dr-congo-opposition-leader-tshisekedis-body-repatriated-family

An agreement has been struck with Kinshasa for the repatriation of the body of veteran Congolese opposition leader Etienne Tshisekedi, who died aged 84 in Belgium in February, his family and political party told AFP Friday.

The long delay in the return of Tshisekedi's remains was due to concerns it could touch off massive demonstrations as the Democratic Republic of Congo is mired in a political crisis over President Joseph Kabila holding onto power beyond his mandate.

Tshisekedi was a key political rival who lost to Kabila in disputed presidential polls in 2011.

Before his death, Tshisekedi had headed the opposition coalition that negotiated a transitional deal which allowed Kabila to remain in office until elections in late 2017.

With Congo finances collapsing, desperate government has few options

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-congo-finances-idUSKCN1AX1TF

As Congo's government was soliciting urgent help from Western donors and the IMF last month to contain an economic crisis, the chairman of the state mining company brought an unusual guest to the prime minister's office. It was Raymond O'Leary, a vice president from Russia's second largest bank, state-owned VTB, to discuss a Eurobond aiming to raise funds for the cash-strapped government, Congolese and VTB officials confirmed.

The choice of lead manager was striking, given that VTB is under U.S. sanctions any deal would have shut the door on IMF and pretty much all Western funding owing to donor objections.

Family of DR Congo’s first PM robbed, daughter attacked

https://www.independent.co.ug/family-dr-congos-first-pm-robbed-daughter-attacked/

The family of the Democratic Republic of Congo’s late independence hero, Patrice Lumumba, said their Kinshasa home was burgled by soldiers on Friday and his daughter Juliana attacked and injured.

“Five soldiers managed to get through the barrier” at the Lumumba family residence at 1:00 am (2300 GMT Thursday), said Francois Lumumba, eldest son of the first Congolese prime minister.

During the robbery Juliana, his younger sister, tried to resist the intruders and was “hit on the head and sides with a rifle butt,” he said in a statement, adding that the attackers fled with “personal effects and a sum of money.”

Africa always at war with itself

Leofab that's true.

Check out the story on Gabriel Amisi Kumba.

Congo-Kinshasa: Army General Profits From Illegally Mining Conflict Gold

http://allafrica.com/stories/201709020101.html

General is a player in gold industry

The report by the group of experts on the Democratic Republic of the Congo also finds that a high-ranking Congolese army commander, Major General Gabriel Amisi Kumba, is running a gold mining operation.

According to the report, mine workers and agents said Amisi owned dredges through a local company that is extracting gold from the Awimi River in the country's northeastern Tshopo province.

DRC's mining code forbids senior military personnel from owning mining rights.

The UN report also found that management of the company, which is allegedly owned by Amisi, were being protected by Congolese army forces (FARDC).

Over 500 dead as Congo cholera epidemic spreads

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/reuters/article-4870358/Over-500-dead-Congo-cholera-epidemic-spreads-WHO.html

More than 500 people have died so far in a cholera epidemic that is sweeping the Democratic Republic of Congo, the World Health Organization (WHO) said.

Outbreaks of the water-borne disease occur regularly in Congo, mainly due to poor sanitation and a lack of access to clean drinking water.

But this year's epidemic, which has already hit at least 10 urban areas including the capital Kinshasa, is particularly worrying as it comes as about 1.4 million people have been displaced by violence in the central Kasai region.

Congo Opposition Calls for Coalition to Force Kabila's Exit

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-09-05/congo-opposition-calls-for-coalition-to-force-kabila-s-departure

The Democratic Republic of Congo’s main opposition leader said parties should unite to force President Joseph Kabila to leave as plans to set a new date for elections are delayed.

“Joseph Kabila is the sole obstacle on the way to the organization of elections in our country,” Felix Tshisekedi, leader of the Rassemblement coalition, told reporters Tuesday in the capital, Kinshasa. “I launch an appeal to all anti-Kabila parties to mobilize themselves together to obtain his departure.”

Congo-Kinshasa: DRC Cholera Death Toll Rising

http://allafrica.com/stories/201709160047.html

The death toll of 528 is from 24 200 cases reported in the Central African country. More than half of Africa's second-biggest country by size has been affected by cholera since the end of last July. Some 20 out of 26 provinces are affected.

Almost all major cities have reported an outbreak which coincided with the deteriorating security situation. The World Health Organisation expressed alarm the outbreak had spread to the capital Kinshasa despite authorities disputing this. The risk of spreading remains significantly high towards the Greater Kasai region, where sanitary and security conditions remain precarious.

Children flee, fight amid Congo's growing Kasai violence

http://www.wral.com/children-flee-fight-amid-congo-s-growing-kasai-violence/16953877/

Congo's Kasai region is the latest deadly hotspot in the vast Central African country that has had violent rebellions for decades. Once again, children are among the most vulnerable victims.

Well over 1 million people have fled the fighting that began a year ago when Congo's military killed the regional tribal leader of the Kamwina Nsapu militia. More than 3,300 people in the region have died, according to estimates by the Catholic church. The United Nations has counted more than 80 mass graves.

"About 440,000 children in the Kasai region could not complete their schooling last year, largely due to the violence and insecurity, UNICEF says."

Congo Miners Claim $1.2 Billion of Unpaid Tax Reimbursements

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-09-15/congo-miners-claim-1-2-billion-of-unpaid-state-reimbursements

The Democratic Republic of Congo’s main business federation said miners are facing financial difficulties because the state failed to reimburse more than $1.2 billion of taxes and duties, as it warned a proposed new mining code may cause the industry to slow.

The sum includes non-reimbursed value-added-tax payments and customs duties, along with an unduly collected minimum tax on earnings, the Federation des Entreprises du Congo’s president, Albert Yuma, said in a Sept. 11 letter to Mines Minister Martin Kabwelulu. Withheld VAT reimbursements account for as much as $900 million of the amount, the federation’s managing director, Kimona Bononge, said by phone from the capital, Kinshasa, on Wednesday.

The outstanding VAT credits are causing “serious difficulties for the finances of actors present in the DRC,” according to the letter seen by Bloomberg and verified by the federation. The state’s failure to release the funds is “comparable to an interest-free and maturity-free loan,” it said.

Congo leads world in sex abuse allegations

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/africa/un-mission-in-congo-forces-reckoning-over-sex-abuse-scandal/2017/09/21/997573c0-9ead-11e7-b2a7-bc70b6f98089_story.html?utm_term=.0f5c9b79acf3

The girl was only 11 when the first peacekeeper raped her, luring her with bread and a banana as she was leaving school in her village in northeastern Congo.

“It was the first man who ever touched me,” said Bora, who asked that only her first name be used because she is a rape victim. The rape left her pregnant, and she gave birth to a son.

She was 13 when the second peacekeeper raped her. She once again got pregnant, and became a mother twice over while she was still a child herself.

Zambia fears humanitarian crisis as influx of Congo refugees escalates

http://www.businessinsider.com/r-zambia-fears-humanitarian-crisis-as-influx-of-congo-refugees-escalates-2017-9

Zambia fears a looming humanitarian crisis after more than 6,000 refugees fleeing turmoil in neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) entered its territory in one month, the presidency said on Friday.

Thousands of people have been killed and more than one million forced to flee their homes in the DRC's eastern Kasai region since the start of an insurrection nearly a year ago by the Kamuina Nsapu militia, which is demanding the withdrawal of military forces from the area.

Thousands Fleeing Congo Soldiers Enter Zambia

https://www.voanews.com/a/thousands-flee-congo-enter-zambia/4041240.html

Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) government forces have been killing civilians in an insurgency-hit region, prompting the latest influx of refugees into northern Zambia, a senior U.N. official said, citing accounts of asylum seekers.

Zambia fears a looming humanitarian crisis after more than 6,000 refugees fleeing turmoil in the DRC entered its territory in one month.

Pierrine Aylara, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) chief representative in Zambia, told Reuters that the latest asylum seekers had said they were fleeing Congolese government forces.

Congo warlord seeks to unite rebel factions in anti-Kabila alliance

https://www.timeslive.co.za/news/africa/2017-10-01-congo-warlord-seeks-to-unite-rebel-factions-in-anti-kabila-alliance/

Yakutumba, who fought alongside the army against Rwandan troops in earlier wars, is spearheading an attempt to unify disparate eastern rebel factions into a force that can oust President Joseph Kabila, who refused to step down when his second and final term in office expired last year.

This marks the most serious effort by a militia leader in Congo's lawless east to combine insurgent groups since Kabila refused to quit power, raising the spectre of generalised conflict along the lines of the Congolese wars of the 1990s, which killed millions of people.

Yakutumba and his rebels are counting on widespread, growing frustration at Kabila's reluctance to step aside and delays to an election to succeed him.

Kabila sits tight as Congo crumbles

https://www.irinnews.org/investigations/2017/10/05/kabila-sits-tight-congo-crumbles

Violent prison breaks, militiamen attacking the city, a plummeting economy. For the Kinois, residents of the Democratic Republic of Congo’s capital, Kinshasa, they are all symptoms of the same crisis and the fault of the same man: President Joseph Kabila and his refusal to let go of power.

The asylee: He fled the Congo after being tortured and threatened with death

http://www.pressherald.com/2017/10/08/the-asylum-seeker-marcel-kabongo-mafuku-fled-the-congo-after-being-tortured-and-threatened-with-death/

Mafuku’s troubles in Democratic Republic of the Congo began in 2010, when he stopped supporting a charity allegedly being used by President Joseph Kabila to garner public support.

Kabila ascended to office after his father was assassinated in 2001, then survived a disputed election and last year refused to step down in defiance of term limits.

Mafuku blames Kabila for violence and human rights violations, including the killing of civilians, in his homeland. He did not want to be seen as supporting him, he said, so he stopped donating money.

“I said, ‘That is not a charity. That is not independent. It is like you work with government.’ So I refuse that,” Mafuku said. “After I refused that, the problem begin.”

At the time, Mafuku owned businesses that he said provided internet connections to customers.

Mafuku said that while he was giving money to the organization, he was not required to pay any taxes. When he stopped donating, he assured the authorities he would pay taxes, but they ended up closing his businesses, he said.

Then Mafuku joined a human rights organization in 2013, and his problems worsened.

Wow, what a journey.

Mob cheers on rape, killing of woman who served ‘forbidden fish’

http://nypost.com/2017/10/10/mob-cheers-on-rape-killing-of-woman-who-served-forbidden-fish/

“They said she gave them beans that contained pieces of a small, local fish,” a Luebo resident told France 24 about the eatery owner.

“Convinced that she had broken their protection charms, the council of rebels sentenced both the woman and the son of her husband’s second wife to commit incest in public,” the resident said.

In the footage, rebel leader Kalamba Kambangoma holds the victim by her hair and explains in the local Tshiluba language that “she must die” for committing high treason.

Amazingly, video just happens to resurface right around election time... rip to the lady and her son.