Democratic Republic of Congo

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Scores Killed, 100 Missing in Congo Flash Floods
Flooding Kills Scores in Congo

Flooding Kills Scores in Congo

About 100 are reported to be missing

(Newser) - The death toll from flash floods and landslides in eastern Congo has risen to 176, with some 100 people still missing, according to a provisional assessment given by the governor and authorities in the country's South Kivu province. Rivers broke their banks in villages in the territory of Kalehe...

IS Group Says It Killed 35 Christians in Village

US has offered $5M reward in hunt for leader in response to attacks in Congo

(Newser) - The Islamic State group has issued a statement claiming responsibility for killing more than 35 people and wounding dozens in eastern Congo. In the statement, posted Friday by Aamaq, the militants' news agency, it said it killed Christians with guns and knives and destroyed their property in Mukondi village in...

Women, Children in DRC Raped, Tortured in Droves: UN

New report details deteriorating situation as M23 rebels overrun eastern part of Congo

(Newser) - The accounts are haunting. Abductions, torture, rapes. Scores of civilians, including women and children, have been killed by M23 rebels in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo, per a UN report. In addition, the rebels have forced children to be soldiers, according to the 21-page report by...

Nation That Balked at Landmark COP15 Deal Changes Tune

Biodiverse Democratic Republic of Congo now says it's on board

(Newser) - A historic deal signed Monday at the UN's COP15 biodiversity summit had a lone objector: Eve Bazaiba of the Democratic Republic of Congo, whose objection was ignored by COP15 President Huang Runqiu, China's environmental minister. Now, Bazaiba is walking back her objection, easing fears of a legal challenge...

Charcoal: Essential for Survival, Devastating for Environment

The need for fuel is helping to destroy the world’s second-largest rainforest

(Newser) - The Democratic Republic of Congo is one of Africa's poorest and most populous nations, with nearly 90 million people, all of whom—like other humans—need to eat. But only 17% have access to electricity, and gas-burning stoves are a luxury. That leaves charcoal as the staple fuel for...

Remains of Independence Hero Finally Return to Congo
A Hero's Tooth Is
Laid to Rest in Congo
UPDATED

A Hero's Tooth Is Laid to Rest in Congo

Independence hero Patrice Lumumba's body was dissolved in acid after 1961 murder

(Newser) - Update: Patrice Lumumba's gold-crowned tooth—all that remained of Congo's independence leader after his body was dissolved in acid more than 60 years ago—finished its tour of the country and was on Thursday entombed in the capital, Kinshasa. The BBC reports it is being kept in a...

Ongoing Issue Leads Pope to Nix Africa Trip

Vatican said it was canceled on doctors' orders

(Newser) - Pope Francis canceled a planned July trip to Africa on doctors' orders because of ongoing knee problems, the Vatican said Friday, dashing hopes of the faithful there and raising further questions about the health and mobility problems of the 85-year-old pontiff. The Vatican said the July 2-7 trip to Congo...

Protesters Denounce Beating Death of Refugee
Protesters Denounce
Beating Death of Refugee
photos

Protesters Denounce Beating Death of Refugee

24-year-old's family had moved to Brazil to escape fighting in Congo

(Newser) - Demonstrators gathered on Saturday in Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo, and other Brazilian cities to protest the killing of a 24-year-old Congolese refugee who was beaten to death on Jan. 24. The killing sparked outrage and revulsion across the nation, the AP reports. In Rio, they gathered outside the beach...

Do We Have a 'Moral Obligation' to Mine for Cobalt in Idaho?

One of the country's largest stores of cobalt is there

(Newser) - As the planet's need for lithium—or, more specifically, lithium-ion batteries—continues to swell, so too does the need for metals needed to make those batteries. Cobalt is one of them. As Michael Holtz explains in a lengthy piece for the Atlantic , a White House report issued in June...

Lava Flow Sends Thousands Fleeing
Lava Flow Sends
Thousands Fleeing
photos

Lava Flow Sends Thousands Fleeing

Eruption panics residents but largely spares Congo city devastated in 2002

(Newser) - A volcano eruption in eastern Congo triggered evacuations, with about 8,000 people fleeing to Rwanda, as lava flows neared the major city of Goma. The flows slowed overnight, stopping just before reaching the city of 2 million, officials reported, and the Rwandan emergency agency said the evacuees were going...

Attack on UN Convoy Kills Italian Ambassador

Luca Attanasio, who had been ambassador to the country since 2017, was killed in Congo

(Newser) - The Italian ambassador to the Democratic Republic of Congo, an Italian carabinieri police officer, and their Congolese driver were killed Monday in an attack on a UN convoy, per Italy's Foreign Ministry and locals. The ambush occurred as the convoy was traveling from Goma, Congo's eastern regional capital,...

6 Rangers Killed in Gorilla Park Ambush

A dozen of their colleagues were massacred in April

(Newser) - The mountain gorillas of Virunga National Park in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo are endangered, as are the rangers tasked with protecting them. At least six rangers were killed in an ambush Sunday, less than nine months after a dozen rangers and five civilians were massacred, the New York ...

A First From a Belgian Monarch: 'Deepest Regrets'

King Philippe offers remorse for colonial abuses in DRC under reign of ancestor King Leopold II

(Newser) - Under the brutal colonial rule of Belgium's King Leopold II, the Democratic Republic of Congo saw millions of its citizens perish at the turn of the 20th century. Now King Philippe, the current royal ruler of Belgium and a direct descendant of Leopold, has offered what's just short...

Just as Ebola Epidemic Was Nearly Defeated, a Big Problem

Patient flees, sparking fears flare-up will become a larger outbreak

(Newser) - An Ebola patient has escaped from a clinic in eastern Congo, leading to fears that a flare-up of the hemorrhagic fever that started April 10 won't be so easily contained. The Democratic Republic of Congo hadn't seen a new case in more than seven weeks, and was two...

Why You Should Care About a Huge Peatland in Africa
It Turns Out Peat Is Way, Way
More Important Than You Knew
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

It Turns Out Peat Is Way, Way More Important Than You Knew

If peatlands burn, the planet will suffer greatly

(Newser) - If you've never thought much about peat, that's understandable. An accumulation of partially decayed vegetation that can develop into a material more than 20 feet deep, peat covers just 3% of the Earth. But a lengthy article from National Geographic makes clear it's a powerhouse thanks to...

Amid Ebola Crisis, a Border Closure

Access to and from Rwanda near Congolese city of Goma is now restricted

(Newser) - Last month, the deadly Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo, which has killed more than 1,800 over the past year, was declared an international health emergency , spurring fears that neighboring nations would seal their borders. Now Rwanda has done just that, at least partly. Access between the...

Ebola Outbreak: Now It's a Global Emergency

WHO makes the announcement after virus hits city of 2M

(Newser) - The deadly Ebola outbreak in Congo is now an international health emergency, the World Health Organization announced on Wednesday after the virus spread this week to a city of two million people, the AP reports. A WHO expert committee had declined on three previous occasions to advise the United Nations...

First Ebola Case Confirmed in City of 2M
Ebola Reaches City of 2M

Ebola Reaches City of 2M

Infected pastor traveled to Goma, Congo

(Newser) - The Congolese health ministry confirmed an Ebola case in Goma late Sunday, marking the first time the virus has reached the city of more than 2 million people along the border with Rwanda since the epidemic began nearly a year ago. The health ministry says the man, who arrived earlier...

Justice Years After Disemboweled Bodies Found in Field

ICC finds Bosco Ntaganda guilty of war crimes committed in the Democratic Republic of Congo

(Newser) - The International Criminal Court came into being in 2002. Seventeen years later, it notched its fourth conviction. Former Congolese rebel leader Bosco Ntaganda, known as the "Terminator," was convicted on Monday of war crimes and crimes against humanity, among them, sexual slavery—the first time the ICC has...

They'd Hoped to Contain Ebola in the Congo. That Plan Failed

2 have died in Uganda, and there are more suspected cases

(Newser) - The World Health Organization has called an emergency meeting Friday over an Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo that has now made its way into Uganda. Citing Ugandan Health Ministry information, the New York Times reports that two people—a 5-year-old Congolese boy and his 50-year-old grandmother—died...

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