Demokratische Republik Kongo

The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has signed a troop deployment deal with the East African Community (EAC), signalling the imminent formal sending of forces to combat rebels in the east of the country.

At least one person has been killed in the eastern Congolese city of Beni as shots were fired during another protest against the United Nations’ MONUSCO peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo).

[…] An army spokesman confirmed the attack on Wednesday, which took place in Ituri province on Tuesday evening, and blamed it on the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), a Ugandan militia active in eastern DRC since the 1990s, which has pledged allegiance to the ISIL (ISIS) group.

The United Nations peacekeeping force in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Monusco, is evacuating its base in the eastern town of Butembo. Local civil society actors say they feel 'a sense of satisfaction' and congratulate 'the population who mobilised as one to demand the unconditional withdrawal of this contingent'.

Soldiers from Burundi have deployed to the troubled eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo as the first part of a recently created East African regional force to respond to crises. … Tensions between the DRC and Rwanda, which the former has accused of supporting the recently resurgent M23 rebel group, in part led to the East African Community creating the regional force earlier this year.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken's visit to Africa did not achieve much in finding a solution to thorny relations between Rwanda and Congo. But his high-profile trip was probably not completely in vain.

Read also: The Potential and Limits of the New U.S. Strategy for Sub-Saharan Africa, CSIS.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in the Democratic Republic of Congo on Tuesday to raise concerns that tensions with neighboring Rwanda could spread instability in the region. Political analysts say the United States is also concerned about Russia and China's access to rare earth minerals in the DRC.

The Democratic Republic of Congo has asked the spokesperson of the UN peacekeepers’ mission (Monusco) to leave the country, signalling a collapse in relations spiked by demonstrations against the foreign troops.

Soldiers returning from leave to a United Nations intervention brigade in Democratic Republic of Congo opened fire at a border post, killing at least two people and injuring 15 others, Congo's government and the U.N. peacekeeping force said on Sunday.

The acting head of the United Nations mission in eastern Congo said Wednesday that it would carry out a joint investigation with national police into the shooting deaths of three peacekeepers and a dozen Congolese civilians during anti-U.N. protests this week.