Five year UN agency action plan for the DRC launched | |
MONUC - April 3, 2008 | |
In the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Kinshasa on 3 April 2008, the DRC government and the UN agencies of UNICEF, UNDP and UNFPA signed a new five year programme action plan for the country, for the years 2008 to 2012. | |
SA to strengthen ties with DRC, funds needed | |
SABC News - April 3, 2008 | |
A serious lack of funding is hampering the implementation of several agreements between South Africa and the Democratic Republic of Congo. High-level government officials from the two countries are now hammering out strategies to find adequate resources. They are expected to present their reports to Presidents Thabo Mbeki and Joseph Kabila during the final day of the South Africa - DRC Binational Commission, underway in Pretoria. | |
Victims of Bas-Congo violence in urgent need of medical care | |
IRIN - March 25, 2008 | |
A medical charity has expressed concerns that people wounded during clashes between the police and supporters of a politico-religious sect in the Bas-Congo province in southwest Democratic Republic of Congo are not receiving any medical help. | |
Launch of the national campaign against sexual violence in the DRC | |
MONUC - March 19, 2008 | |
The Ministry of Gender, Family and Child, in partnership with the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and members of the ?Initiative Conjointe de lutte contre les violences sexuelles? (the joint initiative to fight against sexual violence) officially launched on 18 March 2008 in Kinshasa, the national awareness campaign and plea about sexual violence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. | |
USAID: assistance to the DRC is expected to surpass $100 million this fiscal year | |
MONUC - March 18, 2008 | |
US development assistance to the DRC is expected to surpass $100 million this fiscal year, declared Henrietta Fore, USAID Administrator and Director of US foreign assistance during her visit to the DRC from 15 to 17 March 2008. This would bring total US contributions for 2008 up to $500 million, compared with $460 million in 2007. | |
Fears over increasing sect-related violence in southwest | |
IRIN - March 6, 2008 | |
The violence that has claimed several lives in southeastern Democratic Republic of Congo, after clashes between a religious sect and the national police, could spread further, local activists and officials warned. | |
Lubanga Trial Delay Concerns | |
IWPR - February 29, 2008 | |
The judge hearing the case against Congolese militia leader Thomas Lubanga has expressed concern at continuing delays to the start the International Criminal Court's first-ever trial. The case was set to begin March 31at ICC courtrooms in The Hague but now seems unlikely to start before mid-June and could be pushed back even further. "I will make no secret of the fact of my real frustration, already expressed in no uncertain terms in open court, about delays in getting our first trial up and running," said British judge Adrian Fulford recently to a group of diplomats and human rights representatives in The Hague. | |
Comment: Judicial Appointments Violate Constitution | |
IWPR - February 29, 2008 | |
What is the purpose of the constitution of the Democratic Republic of Congo if it is constantly violated by those who should ensure its application? That's what happened on February 9 when President Joseph Kabila put out to pasture 92 judges and prosecutors, including the supreme court chief and the attorney general, and replaced them with 26 appointees. | |
Chaos in the Courts | |
IWPR - February 27, 2008 | |
The recent acquittal of former militia leader Kahwa Panga Mandro, better known in the troubled eastern region of Ituri as Chief Kahwa, has sparked a wave of outrage across the sprawling Democratic Republic of Congo, DRC. Although first convicted and sentenced for war crimes and crimes against humanity in February 2005, the appeals court in the northeastern city of Kisangani overturned that verdict, saying Chief Kahwa was covered by the country's amnesty law. | |
Round table talks on DRC Security Sector Reform | |
MONUC - February 26, 2008 | |
The opening ceremony of two days of round table talks on the DRC Security Sector Reform, which aims at a reform of the DRC Armed Forces (FARDC) and the National Congolese Police (PNC), was held in Kinshasa on 25 February 2008. |