Congo: priest and nun killed

Independent Catholic News
News has just come through of the killing of a  priest and a nun, in the Archdiocese of Bukavu, the capital of South Kivu in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo:  Fr Daniel Cizimya Nakamaga and Sister Denise Kahambo Murahirwa.
Fr Daniel Cizimya Nakamaga, 51, was killed in the parish in Kabare on [...]

MSF vaccination used as bait in unacceptable attack on civilians

Médecins Sans Frontières
“We feel we were used as bait,” said Luis Encinas, head of MSF programmes in Central Africa. “The attacks coincided with the beginning of our vaccination and put the lives of civilians in extreme risk. Thousands of people, and the MSF teams, were trapped in the gunfire.

Pros and Cons to Huge Chinese Investment in DRC

Stephanie Nieuwoudt
CAPE TOWN, Oct 28 (IPS) – Concerns abound about a nine billion dollar Chinese investment in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, especially around environmental consequences and transparency. And, on the Chinese side, investors complain not only about the lack of security in the DRC but about their own government not providing enough support.

Time to close down the investment companies that feed off the living

New Internationalist

Conflict-ridden Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is the latest poor country to fall foul of a type of investment company called a ‘vulture fund’. It is being charged $20,000 a week – which will eventually rise to $80,000 – by a Washington DC court. The charges are adding to DRC’s already unpayable debt burden [...]

VULTURE FUNDS SWOOP IN ON CONGO

Jubilee USA
NEW LEGISLATION WOULD OUTLAW VULTURE FUND PROFITEERING

By Melinda St. Louis
Thanks to efforts of the global Jubilee campaign, the Democratic Republic of Congo (formerly Zaire) began receiving debt relief from the World Bank and IMF as part of the Highly Indebted Poor Country (HIPC) Initiative in 2003 and continues to work to meet the conditions [...]

Mineral firms ‘fuel Congo unrest’

BBC
Western mineral firms are fuelling violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo by failing to check where their raw materials come from, activists say.
Global Witness says companies sourcing minerals used in electronic gadgets are buying them from traders who finance rebel and government troops.

DR Congo criticises Mobutu ruling

BBC
 
The Democratic Republic of Congo has criticised a Swiss court’s decision to release the assets of its late ex-leader Mobutu Sese Seko to his family.

Congo’s bishops urge citizens to fight corruption in their country

KINSHASA, Congo (CNS) — The Catholic bishops of Congo have called on each citizen to become personally involved in the fight against deeply rooted corruption in the African country. The bishops describe corruption as “one of the bases for the unequal distribution of national resources between the wealthy classes, made up of public authorities, and [...]

Swiss court releases Mobutu money

A Swiss court has ruled that the assets of Mobutu Sese Seko, former leader of Zaire, now the DR Congo, who died in 1997, be returned to his family.
The court rejected an appeal to extend a freeze on assets worth more than $6m that are held in Swiss bank accounts.
Switzerland had repeatedly blocked the release [...]

The wealth of Kigali’s boom

ZMag

As documented by various UN reports Rwanda has exported minerals worth hundreds of millions of dollars that are not found anywhere on Rwandan territory. Kigali is a boom town; a few hundred kilometers away Bukavu is bust.

 By Justin Podur
 (July 4, 2009) — I returned from Bukavu yesterday. A sign of a country not having full [...]