Alarm grows as “mystery illness” in Congo has now killed 60 people and infected over 1,000
Delays in reporting relate to near non-existent infrastructure conditions and poorly resourced facilities.
•Benjamin Mateus
Congo (DRC)
Rwandan-backed M23 advance into DR Congo threatens regional war
M23 now controls nearly all of North Kivu and the province’s vast mineral wealth—including tin (cassiterite), tantalum (coltan), tungsten (wolframite), and gold, which are critical for global electronics and industrial production.
•Alejandro López
DR Congo breaks relations with Rwanda as Rwandan-backed M23 militia seizes Goma
The conflict comes amid rising global tensions after Donald Trump’s election, especially between Washington and Beijing, over control of strategic minerals like those present in the Congo.
•Alejandro López
WHO investigating unidentified illness which has killed at least 143 people in the Democratic Republic of the Congo
The World Health Organization is sending a team into a rural southwest province of the DRC to investigate a recent outbreak of disease that has killed at least 143 people and sickened nearly 400. The cause of the outbreak remains to be determined.
•Benjamin Mateus
Documentary on the assassination of Patrice Lumumba
Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat: Imperialist criminality to a jazz accompaniment
This is vital history, from more than six decades ago, that the vast majority of today’s global population knows nothing about.
•Fred Mazelis
One month into mpox PHEIC: Redux of vaccine nationalism and pandemic profiteering
With life-saving mpox vaccines barely trickling into Africa, cases continue to rise rapidly, including in Kinshasa, the capital of the DRC and home to 17 million people.
•Benjamin Mateus
Mpox detected in Sweden one day after World Health Organization declares epidemic a Public Health Emergency of International Concern
This year alone, there have been 17,451 cases of mpox and 517 deaths, a case fatality rate of 2.95 percent.
•Bryan Dyne
WHO considers declaring public health emergency of international concern due to outbreak of deadlier Mpox strain
The deadlier strain of Mpox that emerged last year in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has spread unchecked to Uganda, Kenya and the capital city of Goma, raising the dangers of another pandemic.
•Benjamin Mateus
Failed pro-imperialist coup targets Democratic Republic of Congo
The coup took place as Washington and its NATO allies wage a bitter struggle for influence in Africa with China and Russia, amid the NATO-Russia war in Ukraine.
•Kumaran Ira
The 74th Berlin International Film Festival—Part 3
Golden Bear winner Dahomey and Which Way Africa?
The awarding of the Golden Bear to the documentary by the French-Senegalese director Mati Diop is an indication that the dominant influence of identity politics in the cultural sector is losing ground.
•Bernd Reinhardt
Kenya, Rwanda, Democratic Republic of Congo back Israel’s genocidal assault on Palestinians in Gaza
The populations in all these countries, like the vast majority of the world’s people, solidarise with the Palestinians. The “support” for the genocidal war being waged by Israel is in fact only the support of bourgeois ruling cliques.
•Kipchumba Ochieng
Record 50.8 million people internally displaced in 2019
The plight of tens of millions of internally displaced people is virtually ignored, attracting little global attention during the escalating global pandemic.
•Jean Shaoul
Renewed Ebola outbreak threatens the Congo as COVID-19 spreads
Already afflicted by a growing COVID-19 pandemic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo has seen three new Ebola cases including two deaths in recent weeks.
•Anthony Torres
Apple, Microsoft and Google among five companies sued over deaths of Congolese child miners
Apple, Alphabet, Dell, Microsoft and Tesla are all accused in a lawsuit filed last month of knowingly using cobalt mined by children as young as six.
•Sam Dalton
Analysis of Congo election data points to “huge fraud” in vote tally
An extensive set of data leaked to the Financial Times has revealed a clear case of massive electoral fraud.
•Eddie Haywood
Felix Tshisekedi declared victor in disputed presidential election in Congo
Heavily-armed riot police were deployed outside the electoral commission’s headquarters in Kinshasa ahead of the announcement.
•Eddie Haywood
Trump deploys troops to central Africa following disputed Congo election
Washington is making it clear that it intends to install a pliant government in Kinshasa that will ensure that America’s economic interests are secured.
•Eddie Haywood
Surging violence and political crisis in Congo
The year-old civil war in central Congo’s Kasai provinces is now producing more refugees than the wars in Iraq and Syria.
•Thomas Gaist, Eddie Haywood
Rebels attack UN base in Congo, killing 20 soldiers
Armed militants carried out a raid on a UN base in Eastern Congo early Thursday, killing 15 UN soldiers and five troops with the Congolese army.
•Eddie Haywood
Violence surges in central Congo’s Kasai province
Some twenty villages have been destroyed, nearly 4,000 civilians killed, and more than 1 million displaced in Kasai since last year.
•Timotheos Gaist