Democratic Republic of the Congo

Nearly 700 people in the Democratic Republic of the Congo were victims of summary and extrajudicial executions this year, with a third carried out by security forces, the United Nations reported on Thursday.

The problems of eradicating Ebola in the Democratic Republic of the Congo are not only medical, but also linked “to a variety of political and social factors”, the head of the UN mission in the country told the Security Council on Wednesday.

The second worst Ebola outbreak of all time, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), was officially declared a Public Health Emergency of International Concern on Wednesday, with the head of the World Health Organization calling for countries to ‘take notice and redouble our efforts”.

A team of UN experts reports a decrease in violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s Kasai region and they say a change in governing authorities may present an opening for peace and reconciliation in the troubled region. The team has presented a report Wednesday on the current situation in Kasai to the UN Human Rights Council.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) on Monday, found former Congolese rebel leader Bosco Ntaganda guilty “beyond reasonable doubt”, of 18 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity, in the volatile Ituri district of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), between 2002 and 2003.

President Felix Tshisekedi described interethnic bloodshed in DRC's northeast as "attempted genocide" after scores of people were killed and tens of thousands displaced. The leader of the Democratic Republic of the Congo said the violence appeared to be a "plot" and vowed to "find out the truth" about who was behind the deadly unrest.

With civilians fleeing a spate of inter-ethnic violence in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the United Nations Security Council on Wednesday extended its arms embargo, asset freeze and a travel ban on the country until July 2020.

The United Nations refugee agency reports around 7,500 Congolese refugees have fled to Uganda this month to escape escalating inter-ethnic violence.

In March, the United Nations Security Council called for a “strategic review” of the UN Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO). Part of this review is to include a well-articulated possible exit strategy for the mission. What remains to be seen is whether the Security Council will decide that the strategy is sound and should be implemented, or that MONUSCO should remain functioning with some changes.