Demokratische Republik Kongo

Crowds of Congolese police officers who switched to the M23 rebel group sang and clapped in occupied Bukavu city on Saturday, preparing for retraining under the authority of the rebels who are intent on showing they plan to stick around and govern.  

Burundi has “accelerated” the withdrawal of some troops from DR Congo, a senior military source told AFP Thursday, as the UN warned the small Great Lakes nation was seeing its biggest influx of refugees from its conflict-riven neighbor in 25 years. 

The Democratic Republic of Congo on Monday criticized the “inaction” of the UN Security Council in the wake of the M23 armed group seizing the city of Bukavu, according to a letter seen by AFP. 

An army spokesperson confirmed Tuesday that additional troops from the Uganda People’s Defense Force (UPDF) have entered Bunia, the capital of Ituri Province, a key town in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, amid rising tensions in the region. … Uganda finds itself in a complex web of accusations and denials within the volatile eastern Congo conflict.

The African Union warned Sunday against the break-up of the Democratic Republic of Congo, two days after the Rwandan-backed M23 armed group entered a second city in the country’s east. … UN chief Antonio Guterres warned on Saturday that a “regional escalation must be avoided at all costs.”

Scores of children caught up in the conflict in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) have been subjected to sexual violence including rape by armed men, according to the United Nations Children’s Fund. The targeting of children has soared to unprecedented levels in recent weeks, UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell warned on Thursday, … .

The United Arab Emirates called on Tuesday for a ceasefire in Sudan during the coming holy month of Ramadan, a UAE official said, a call rejected by the Sudanese army, … . The army considers the UAE to be an aggressor of the war, accusing it of arming the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, accusations U.N. experts and U.S. lawmakers have said are credible.

South Africa has sent additional troops and military equipment to Democratic Republic of Congo in recent days, political and diplomatic sources said, after 14 of its soldiers were killed in fighting with Rwanda-backed rebels last month. … South Africa is believed to have around 3,000 troops deployed in Congo, both as part of a U.N. peacekeeping mission and a Southern African regional force tasked with helping Congo's army combat the M23 insurgency.

A summit of African leaders meeting to address the crisis in the Democratic Republic of Congo on Saturday called for an "immediate and unconditional ceasefire" within five days.

UN human rights chief Volker Türk on Friday expressed profound concerns at the ongoing violent escalation in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) caused by the ongoing Rwanda-backed M23 offensive. “If nothing is done, the worst may be yet to come, for the people of the eastern DRC, but also beyond the country’s borders,” he told a Special Session of the Human Rights Council in Geneva.