News About Congo

Forced to Flee

What would force you to flee your home?  A Flood, Tornado, Hurricane, Fire, Tsunami, or Nuclear Disaster are items on our list in the developed world.

In Congo, armed miltias are added to the list. 

 

Violence and Tax Evasion Plague Congo

The illegal "mining industry" has hurt people of eastern Congo.  Millions have been died.  Hundreds of thousands of poor persons have been displaced.

The legal "mining industry" has hurt people throughout the Congo.  Millions of dollars of taxes have not been collected.  These taxes could address the widespread poverty in the country.

Mining Companies Deprive Africa of Millions in Lost Revenue

Mining companies routinely deprive African countries of huge amounts of tax revenue that could be used to combat poverty, a new report reveals today.

Breaking the Curse: How Transparent Taxation and Fair Taxes can Turn Africa’s Mineral Wealth into Development highlights the methods mining companies use to pay as little tax as possible. These include:

• Forcing governments to grant tax subsidies and concessions by threatening to go elsewhere if they are not forthcoming
• Insisting mining contracts signed with governments remain secret. Some governments, also anxious the contracts are not held up to public scrutiny – are happy to oblige.

• Using the secrecy surrounding contracts to pursue aggressive tax avoidance strategies.

• In at least one country, the Democratic Republic of Congo, (DRC), there have been allegations of corrupt politicians awarding illegal tax exemptions to mining companies in return for private gain.

• False accounting used, the report alleges, to enable companies to artificially depress profits in countries where they operate to evade tax.

In DRC, a 2007 World Bank document said: ‘fraudulent practices by companies and government agencies have created a gap [between] what should be paid versus what is actually what is actually recorded as having been received in terms of royalties and surface rents alone.  The gap is larger if total mining taxes are considered: about US$200m per year should be generated by the sector.’ That year the government claimed to receive only US$13m in taxes from mining.

 

The report has been jointly published by ActionAid, Christian Aid, Third World Network Africa, Tax Justice Network Africa, and Southern Africa Resource Watch.

ActionAid is an international anti-poverty agency working in over 40 countries taking sides with poor people to end poverty and injustice together. 

Refugees From Congo Cause Unexpected Humanitarian Challenges

Poor and frighten refugees are on the move again.  This time, they are fleeing Congo going into southern Sudan.

Refugee numbers huge after military operations against Congo rebels

The joint military operation launched against rebels of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) in December by Ugandan, Congolese and southern Sudanese troops has created serious and unexpected humanitarian challenges in southern Sudan.

During a press briefing today (13 March) in Juba, UN Deputy Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator Lise Grande said that the refugee influx from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and the overall humanitarian situation might not improve in the near future.
 
"The joint operation which was launched in December by the Ugandan Southern Sudanese and Congo armed forces against the LRA: The key message is there have been serious and, let me be frank, and unexpected humanitarian consequences."

The LRA attacks against civilians in the DRC and southern Sudan have caused large-scale displacement among populations living near the international border between Sudan and the DRC. Over 100,000 people in Western and Central Equatoria states are affected, according to Grande.

Lise Grande Deputy Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator: "Here is the problem: The numbers are getting too big, conditions are now sliding, we are worried about this."

In Congo, It's the Africans solving African problems with the US' Help

The US pressured the Congolese government into working with its other allies (Uganda, Rwanda, and South Sudan) in the Great Lakes.  Africans solving African problems with the US' help. 

DR Congo outsources its military

The Democratic Republic of Congo - a country with the trappings of sovereignty but not much modern government or control outside the main cities - is waking up to its limitations.

DR Congo has invited in foreign armies to help deal with its lawless regions. It is a joint military operation that is highly unusual in Africa.

The militaries of three foreign countries - Uganda, Rwanda and South Sudan - are now operating in or around the edges of DR Congo.

But unlike in previous times, the foreign armies have not invaded against the will of the authorities in the capital Kinshasa.

They were invited in by the Congolese government to deal with rebel movements that Kinshasa admits it - and the largest UN peacekeeping force in the world, in DR Congo - cannot handle.

To be accurate, the word "invited" is not quite right.

Kinshasa was persuaded by United States pressure to accept the foreigners.

The US is allied to Uganda, Rwanda and South Sudan - all of which, in various ways, are opposed to the US bogeyman in the region, the Islamist regime based in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum. (South Sudan is de facto quasi-independent from Khartoum after winning control of the south after a long war.)

Nice Promises but No Additional Troops

The UN needs to stand behind its pledge of additional forces for eastern and northeastern Congo.

Human Rights Watch Calls for End to Civilian Massacres in Congo

Senior Human Rights Watch Researcher Anneke Van Woudenberg visited northeastern Congo in January. She urges the Security Council, which is to discuss the DRC Tuesday, to follow through on its pledge of additional forces.

"The United Nations still only has less than 300 peacekeepers in this massive and vast region of northern Congo. So one of the problems clearly is that there are simply not enough blue helmets, not enough peacekeepers to be able to deal with the issues of protection of civilians," she said. "It Is nice for the Security Council to have made nice declarations and to make nice promises, but those are meaningless until additional troops arrive on the ground."

A New Era of Cooperation against the LRA

A joint operation by the Congolese, Ugandan, and Sudanese forces against the LRA.  That's cooperation.  That's a miracle!

LRA fighters trapped: Congo spokesman

The remnants of the Ugandan rebel Lord's Resistance Army are trapped by opposing forces in northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo and will have to surrender, a Congolese government spokesman said Saturday.

"We think that Joseph Kony is with them," he said, referring to the head of the LRA, the target of a joint operation by Congolese, Ugandan and south Sudanese forces launched in December.

"The hard core of the Lord's Resistance Army is in a swampy forest in the Garamba national park," spokesman Lambert Mende told AFP, putting their numbers at about 250.

"They have no way out of these swamps except to surrender," he said.

Mende said the rest of the LRA had surrendered or disbanded, adding that the aim of the joint operation against the rebels had almost been achieved.

He said that Congolese President Joseph Kabila and his Ugandan counterpart Yoweri Museveni would meet on the border between their two countries before the end of February to assess the situation.

"I could not go back to my village"

Northeastern Congo has replaced eastern Congo as the center of violence.

The LRA is connected to southern Sudan and Uganda.  This is another battle of out-of-country rebels being fought in Congo. 

Tormented by the LRA in the north-east

Marguerite Animbwe Fuo fled her village of Manzakala in north-eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) after Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) fighters beat her two children to death.

"I could not go back to my village because I saw my two children being killed with machetes and sticks," she said. "Everything was destroyed or looted."

Animbwe, 49, was among the internally displaced persons (IDPs) at Doruma in Orientale Province when John Holmes, the UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, visited.

More Protection of Civilians is Needed

The UN Mission to the Congo (MONUC) made it clear that they are not sitting around and doing nothing.  They are busy.  Obviously, more protection of civilians is needed.

MONUC is not the problem.  They are part of the solution.  The problem is the LRA.

Who should be providing the protection?

Protect civilians in northeast from rebels - MSF

The Ugandan rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) is deliberately targeting civilians and hindering humanitarian access in Haut-Uélé, northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the NGO Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has said.

"It is clear [that] not much attention is being given to civilian protection," Hakim Chkam, an MSF field coordinator in Haut-Uélé, Orientale Province, said. "There is a total lack of civilian protection."

The rebels have become particularly vicious over the past two months after a joint military offensive to dislodge them. They have been active in an area which lies along the DRC border with Uganda and the Central African Republic.

"Women who come to the health centres to give birth leave immediately after delivery, scared of staying longer," Chkam told a news conference in Nairobi on 4 February.

"The LRA is deliberately and systematically targeting civilians in its attacks. They [the LRA] are using a scorched earth policy… Last week a woman was attacked while going to her field in an area where FARDC [national army] forces have been deployed."

100,000 displaced since Christmas

At least 900 people have been killed and a further 100,000 displaced in attacks since Christmas, he said. Children have also been abducted - some during a vaccination campaign.

"About 30 percent of the displaced have had to flee LRA attacks more than once," Chkam added. There have been two recent waves of LRA attacks - the first from August to December 2008 in which there were six reported attacks, and the second from 25 December to date.

"The second wave has been more lethal with an attack per day on average," Chkam said. The attacks coincided with the deployment of FARDC (Congolese army) troops to some of the affected areas.

"Further massacres are likely... MONUC [the UN Mission in the DRC] must therefore take up its responsibilities, and can no longer continue to be so invisible to the inhabitants of Haut-Uélé when they are being systematically attacked," said Marc Poncin, MSF’s operational manager for DRC, in a statement.

MONUC rejects MSF stance

MONUC, however, said the MSF view that MONUC did not provide protection to the civilian population was biased.

"The report is unfair. I do not think that it is accurate," said MONUC military spokesman Lt-Col Jean-Paul Dietrich. "It does not give the full picture of all that MONUC is doing."

MONUC was assisting in the deployment of Congolese troops and providing food and transport. "We provide the Congolese troops with supplies two to four [times] per week. Without that support I do not know if the Congolese army would have been able to succeed in providing security in the LRA affected villages," the spokesman told IRIN.

"We have also indirectly contributed by offering our base to the Ugandans," he said. MONUC had also set up an air base in Duru to allow planes used in the anti-LRA intervention to land.

MONUC has about 4,000 troops in Ituri and Orientale, with 250 near Dungu town in Haut-Uélé. According to Dietrich, there are plans to set up a rapid intervention force in Haut-Uélé.

Following the military operation by the Ugandan, DRC and Southern Sudanese armies, the LRA has split into smaller groups, which are accused of mass murder, rape and pillage in DRC and Southern Sudan.

Analysts say the intervention, launched on 14 December, had exacerbated civilian hardship. "Protection of vulnerable civilians must become a priority for this operation so that one of the greatest costs of this offensive - those lives lost and communities destroyed by LRA attacks - do not outweigh the benefits," said Julia Spiegel from the Washington-based Enough Project.

"Simply put, protection of those at risk must be paramount in any military effort [in future]."

MONUC Should Be A Heavily Armed "Police Force"

There is a BIG disconnect between of what MONUC needs to do and what they are doing.  Congo does not have an effective armed force to fight against rebels or police force to the people.  Everyone wants MONUC to protect the Congolese civilians. 

We want a heavily armed police force.  Serve and Protect!  They need to patrol the villages, investigate crimes against the civilians, AND then hunt down the guilty parties.

UN peacekeepers failing to protect Congolese civilians

United Nations peacekeepers are failing to protect civilians from Ugandan rebels in north-eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, where over 900 people have been butchered since Christmas, humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said Wednesday.

The Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) embarked on its murderous spree following a combined attack by Ugandan, Congolese and southern Sudanese forces.

'Little thought was given to protecting civilians when planning these attacks,' Hakim Chkam, MSF's Field Coordinator in the Haut-Uele province, told journalists in Nairobi. 'All the governments involved and the UN must act now to protect civilians.

'Given its mandate to protect civilians, MONUC (the French acronym for the UN peacekeeping mission) has a particular role to play,' he added.

Ugandan Army Soldiers Have Only Three Days to Leave Congo

Let's see if the Ugandan Army leave the the Congo. 

Nkunda, a Tutsi from Rwanda, spent years in Congo while "protecting" his fellow Tutsi.   

UPDF has 3 days to leave DRC

The Democratic Republic of Congo’s Prime Minister, Adolphe Muzito has said that the Uganda People’s Defense forces soldiers who are hunting LRA rebels in DRC have only three days remaining to leave the DRC.

He says that the Ugandan soldiers have up to February 6 to end its operations against LRA fighters code named operation Lightening Thunder.

Uganda, Southern Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo launched a joint military operation against LRA rebels on December 14th but the Congolese government insists all foreign armies should leave the country as has been agreed.

However, the UPDF spokesman, Maj. Felix Kulaigye told Ultimate Media at the National Security Building on Jinja road that Uganda will sit-down with their DRC counterparts once the 3 days expire to review their operation against Kony and his LRA fighters.

“I can not tell you now whether UPDF will continue to stay in DRC after the three days expire or not.But the army will tell all Ugandans the next step once the four days expires,” he said in an interview.