Congolese refugees who fled to Angola to escape fighting between armed groups and military forces in 2017 are beginning to return home, according to Angolan officials and UNHCR, the United Nations refugee agency. Some 8,000 refugees have been on the move for the past week, with more than 1,400 already…
A military court in the Democratic Republic of Congo has again suspended the trial of a witness to the murders of two United Nations experts in the Kasaï region in March 2017 who later became a suspect himself. A hearing in Kananga is rescheduled for next week so that Jean…
Michelle Bachelet, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), warned Friday that Angola’s deportation of Congolese nationals is resulting in serious human rights violations by security forces on both sides of the border. Some 330,000 people have crossed from Angola back into the troubled Kasai and Kwango provinces…
Officials in Angola defended on Tuesday the closure of 67 illegal diamond mine operations as part of its “Operation Transparency” crackdown, a National Police effort in seven provinces meant to curb illegal mining and migration. Police spokesman António Bernardo told state news agency ANGOP that some 260 Congolese migrants left…
The Congolese minister for human rights said Monday that the remains of at least two people traveling with United Nations experts Michael Sharp and Zaida Catalan in the Kasai provinces of the Democratic Republic of Congo when they were killed have been found. Isaac Kabuayi, a motorcycle driver, and interpreter…
Fatou Bensouda, chief prosecutor for the International Criminal Court (ICC) based in The Hague, is in Democratic Republic of Congo to begin an investigation into possible crimes against humanity reflected in the nation’s ongoing political and ethnic violence. She’s meeting with Marie-Ange Mushobekwa, the Minister for Human Rights, and other…
Congolese officials say two people arrested at the weekend are leaders responsible for the high-profile deaths of United Nations experts in the volatile Kasais a year ago – including a man who appears in the video recording of their murders. Vincent Manga, leader of the militia group Kamuina Nsapu, and…
Government forces in the DR Congo have been implicated in waves of increasing ethnic violence in the Kasai provinces, according to a United Nations investigation report released Friday. The report, based on interviews with Congolese seeking refuge in neighboring Angola, details their horrific accounts of targeted killings and mutilation of…
Three international experts have been assigned to investigate allegations of mass killings and other grave human rights violations in the Kasai provinces of Democratic Republic of Congo. The appointments of Bacre Ndiaye of Senegal, Fatimata M’Baye of Mauritania and Canadian Luc Côté were announced Wednesday by the United Nations Office…
United Nations human rights chief Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein, appealing to the Human Rights Council in Geneva on Tuesday, described stunning levels of human rights violations in the Kasai provinces of Democratic Republic of Congo in a renewed call for an independent international investigation. A UN team deployed to DR Congo…
The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights has asked the UN Human Rights Council to open an investigation into widespread violations and abuses in the Kasai regions of the Democratic Republic of Congo. The human rights violations include 42 mass graves documented by UN officials, who say the actual…
The European Union formally listed on Monday nine current and former officials of the Democratic Republic of Congo whose role in human rights violations has led to EU sanctions against them. Their names were added “in view of the gravity of the situation in DRC,” and join the list of…
Journalists in the Democratic Republic of Congo say they have reviewed a video that appears to document the violent deaths of United Nations experts Zaida Catalan and Michael Sharp in March. Government officials made the video available to reporters in Kinshasa on Monday, stressing that the dress and manner of…
More than 4,000 Congolese have crossed the border into Angola since Wednesday, seeking refuge from the fighting between Kamuina Nsapu rebels and government forces in the southern Kasai region of Democratic Republic of Congo. That’s according to figures provided on Saturday by the DR Congo consulate in Moshico, cited by…
The International Criminal Court based in The Hague has warned that violent killings and related human rights violations in the Democratic Republic of Congo may meet criteria that fall within its legal mission. Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda, a native of The Gambia, expressed concern over developments in DR Congo, particularly in…
Laureen is the editor of Africa Times