Demokratische Republik Kongo

At least 21 civilians in eastern DR Congo have been massacred by the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), a militia blamed for hundreds of killings in the past year, UN sources and local officials said Tuesday. … It is the second mass killing in a week in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s troubled east.

The DRC’s lower house of parliament has voted to remove its speaker in the latest round of a bitter rivalry between President Felix Tshisekedi with his predecessor and coalition partner Joseph Kabila. The vote was a show of strength by Tshisekedi’s allies, who might have enough support to form a new majority in parliament and bring down the government, which is dominated by Kabila loyalists.

DR Congo President Tshisekedi wants to end a two-year power-sharing coalition with ex-President Joseph Kabila's faction, which stalled many of Tshisekedi's much-touted reforms. But he is already facing major headwinds.

The United Nations peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has closed nine field offices since the peaceful transfer of power in the 2018 presidential elections, the Organization’s top official in that country told the Security Council today, reporting that a new strategy for the operation’s eventual closure recognizes and is tailored to differing realities on the ground and security needs in each province.

[…] Leila Zerrougui, Special Representative and Head of the UN Stabilization Mission in DRC (MONUSCO), warned of heightened political tensions in the country, including fissures within the ruling coalition and a presidential threat to dissolve the national assembly. 

A former Congolese militia leader, Ntabo Ntaberi Sheka, has been sentenced to life in prison for crimes including mass rape and recruitment of child soldiers. The UN has said the verdict gave "immense hope" to victims.

More than a dozen people have been killed in two attacks near Beni in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo that were blamed on the Islamist ADF group, local sources said Sunday. … The group has killed more than 640 civilians since the army launched a crackdown on it last November, according to an unofficial count.

The government hopes to completely disarm the Front for Patriotic Resistance in Ituri (FRPI), one of many rebel movements active in eastern DR Congo, over the next two months.

The group has killed nearly 600 civilians since the army launched a crackdown on it last November, according to an unofficial count.