Democratic Republic of the Congo

The Security Council has an opening to rethink its approach to DR Congo with this month’s mandate renewal of the UN peacekeeping mission. The council should prioritise local conflict resolution and bolstering President Tshisekedi’s efforts to improve regional relations to combat over 100 armed groups ravaging the east.

At least two people reportedly killed as demonstrations continue demanding UN peacekeepers leave the Beni area.

Angry locals in eastern Congo have accused a UN mission of failing to prevent a massacre. But in an interview with DW, Nobel Peace Prize laureate and Congo native Denis Mukwege argues the mission is a necessary presence.

[…] The death occurred on Tuesday in the eastern city of Beni where locals have been demonstrating against MONUSCO, accusing it of failing to protect them against a notorious militia.

Peacekeepers from the UN Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) were conducting extensive patrols in the east of the country on Tuesday, one day after demonstrators set fire to buildings to protest lack of civilian protection in the face of attacks by armed groups.

More than one-third of the United Nation’s Ebola responders in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo city of Beni were relocated Tuesday amid growing insecurity in the area, while the other responders remained to help combat the deadly outbreak.

The court, in the eastern city of Bukavu, also found Congo's government liable for failing to protect victims of the Raia Mutomboki militia and ordered it to pay compensation to more than 300 victims.

The UN refugee agency reports hundreds of thousands of displaced people in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s North Kivu and Ituri provinces are living in abject poverty and subject to mass human rights violations.

The International Criminal Court sentenced former Congolese military leader Bosco Ntaganda on Thursday to 30 years in prison for atrocities including murder, rape and conscripting child soldiers. Ntaganda, 46, was found guilty in July on 18 charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity for acts committed when he was military chief of the Union of Congolese Patriots (UPC) militia in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo in 2002-2003.