Congo crisis

just heard about this on the bbc this morning:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/africa/african-treaty-to-aid-the-internally-displaced-comes-into-force-2-years-after-it-was-adopted/2012/12/06/03ad3052-3f9f-11e2-8a5c-473797be602c_story.html

looks great, but somalia + congo (probably two biggest internally displaced countries) haven't signed on. at the end of the report the guy being interviewed was like "well, they won't follow all the provisions, but hopefully they won't go against them either" -- good luck! okay, but it's a start, i think.

Would totally recommend "Africa's World War" as a history of the war in Congo--doesn't spend any time comparing the war to WW2 other than to state that it involved an entire continent's worth of countries. Only strike against the book is that it can get quite bewilderingly detail-heavy. There are so many acronym-laden armed groups and splinter groups and groups recombined out of other groups that it gets to be quite an alphabet soup. But other than that I would really consider it the definitive book on the subject.

Still wondering why M23 left Goma. Definitely feels like only a tiny sliver of what's going on there is making it out to western news sources.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-12-05/gertler-earns-billions-as-mine-deals-leave-congo-poorest.html

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2013/06/24/the_invisible_state

That piece ends in part by saying this:

But that is largely because the world has not provided any incentives to think about alternative scenarios: a Congo divided into different states, a Kinshasa with varying levels of sovereign control over different regions, more formal responsibilities for the international community in the provision of security and services, or any other idea that might move away from the 50-year fixation on aiding a failed state.

But it starts by saying that the UN peacekeepers in the Eastern part of the country outside Kinshasa are not doing anything; so isn't Congo, in a sense already divided into separate states? As for more formal responsibilities regarding security--is really possible that any country will want to have its troops involved in doing this; which also seems like a different approach than the separate state argument? I don't know enough about the rebels in the East and what granting them the authority to have a separate state would mean.

I think most of the Congolese musicians I have listened to were from Kinshasa. Congo used to be the influential center of music through large parts of the continent.

congolese rumba is one of my all time fave genres

I used to read an African music chatboard/forum whose participants were largely Congolese expatriotes and American fans of Congolese rumba and soukous. The Congolese ex-pats would only grudgingly acknowledge music from elsewhere, and insist that their rumba was superior and influenced genres elsewhere on the continent. The devastation in Congo plus changing music trends and new technology means it must be hard to be a rumba musician back home (and not move to France or Belgium like many Congolese musicians have)

i think my fave reissue (maybe fave album period) from this year is the Orchestra Super Mazembe 2 disc @45RPM set. they were formed in Zaire, but moved to Nairobi in 1974, so i guess congolese rumba bands have been leaving the congo for a bit now.

mainstream congolese music kind of famously started to dry up in the 80s and 90s because anyone with a reputation outside of the country would move to brussels or paris or the US. that's still true to a great extent.

kinshasa almost like a city-state... for the most part they have been spared the violence that persists in many other parts of the country.

IIRC it's either the fastest growing city in the world full stop or at least the fastest growing (quasi-)francophone city. it's huge.

So no one wants to comment on the foreign policy article? Aren't there some experts we can bring in?

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/23/opinion/congo-the-road-to-ruin.html

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/africa/2013/08/201382815950221122.html

A United Nations peacekeeper has been killed and three others wounded in escalating violence in the eastern Congo, which also saw UN helicopters fire on rebels fighting Congolese troops.

The nationality of the slain peacekeeper was not immediately known and no other details were given.

The latest fighting began just before 8am on Wednesday in the hills of the Kibati area, about 15km north of the provincial capital of Goma, according to both a government and a UN spokesman.

The rebels confirmed that they had been attacked by ground troops as well as from the air.

"There was a big offensive this morning. The government's army, helped by the United Nations, attacked our positions near Goma with aircrafts, with combat tanks and with infantry," said the president of the M23 rebel movement, Bertrand Bisimwa.

Army spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Olivier Hamuli said the UN brigade and regular UN peacekeepers had supported government forces with heavy artillery and attack helicopters.

"Combat is ongoing and there has been an intense bombardment of Kibati," he told the Reuters news agency. "It's going well. We have not advanced much but M23 is gaining no territory."

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2013/09/03/congo_is_too_big_to_fail

Congo belongs to a sovereign people who are proud of their nation and its history, culture, and wealth. Taken in full measure, Congo's ethnic groups, large and small, live peacefully together. But a new crop of non-Congolese analysts peddles a Conrad-esque narrative that portrays Congo as a primitive land pulled straight from Heart of Darkness and casts the Congolese people as incapable of determining their own destiny. These analysts emphasize local conflict, militias, state failure, sexual violence, and poverty. Their essays rarely mention Congo's strong civil society and resourceful population, instead relying on surveys and rankings like Foreign Policy's Failed States Index. But Congo is not a string of statistics, and no country can be reduced to such numbers. In fact, it is impossible to get a meaningful reading of developments in Congo through indices and surveys due to lack of accurate data.

This is just unbelievable: But each crisis has made Congo stronger and better and brings the Congolese together as a nation. Uhm... no...

Definately No

so, wow

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/06/world/africa/m23-rebels-democratic-republic-congo.html

whoa

yes

http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/11/05/a-congolese-rebellion-routed-a-photographers-work-continues/

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2013/12/20/is_congo_finally_getting_its_act_together

http://espn.go.com/nfl/playoffs/2013/story/_/id/10135747/aaron-rodgers-finds-worthy-cause-raise-hope-congo

I hope Congo is getting its act together

http://www.npr.org/2014/02/06/272490157/in-eastern-congo-complex-conflicts-and-high-stakes-diplomacy

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/09/opinion/pass-it-on.html

Feel bad for the kids, meanwhile this still happening :

http://www.cnn.com/2014/06/08/world/africa/dr-congo-violence/

(CNN) -- U.N. peacekeepers and troops from the Democratic Republic of Congo are trying to bring peace to an eastern Congo town where a cattle-rustling dispute led to the deaths of 30 people

can't believe this is still going on:
http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2015/1/16/congo-hutu-war.html

it's so sad that no matter when this thread is revived, i never have to ask, "what crisis?"

iirc the rwandan gov't is helping to arm these rebels right?

who FDLR? afaik they're looking to overthrow the rwandan govt

President Joseph Kabila's adviser, Jean-Marie Kassamba, told Al Jazeera, "The ultimatum that we gave them has expired. We have said that at any moment the Congolese army with MONUSCO will start the operations against the FDLR."

This fulfilled pledges Congo signed with Rwanda and Uganda at a meeting in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia after the M23 rebels were defeated, he said.

M23 was allegedly funded by rwanda

i get them mixed up :(

FDLR = Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda, includes members of Interahamwe
M23 = former members of National Congress for the Defence of the People (CNDP) who turned against DRC govt - mostly tutsis. named M23 after the 3/23/09 CNDP treaty w/ the govt where they became a political party

essentially the idea was that rwanda was funding M23 to disturb eastern Congo / Goma area and as i understand it, in exchange for the resolution of M23 (11/7/13) DRC agreed to handle FDLR which is a threat to Rwanda.

big problem w/ this agreement is that even UN+DRC has been demonstrated to be unsuccessful at holding east congo area (it was a scandal when M23 basically walked right by the UN camps) while they were fighting M23. it's unclear that anything has changed and that they can deliver FDLR.

the central authority in kinshasa has never really had much control of eastern congo since the end of the colonial period

or at least that control was always contingent and fragile

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/22/magazine/why-not-us-women.html

short piece but amazing photos in the slideshow

http://congoresearchgroup.org/69-armed-groups-in-the-congo-what-next/

https://pslarson2.files.wordpress.com/2011/01/murdockmapbound.png

http://www.timeslive.co.za/local/2015/12/02/South-African-forces-attack-Congo-rebels%E2%80%9A-sparking-possible-diplomatic-row

The Ugandan separatist Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) have been behind a spate of massacres at schools‚ hospitals and villages in the region.

South African National Defence Force troops are in the area as part of a United Nations-backed peacekeeping mission to restore stability to the eastern DRC.

The attacks by the SANDF late yesterday were carried out despite the DRC government trying to forbid the UN's actions.

Reports indicate that the helicopters caused considerable damage to several of the rebels' bases‚ although exact losses of ADF personnel are unknown.

The attacks came as ADF forces were marching on several villages on the outskirts of eastern DRC town of Beni.

Infighting between the DRC government and the UN follows ADF fighters stepping up attacks on peacekeepers in the region

http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2016/jan/19/children-as-young-as-seven-mining-cobalt-for-use-in-smartphones-says-amnesty?CMP=share_btn_fb

The human rights groups say they traced the supply chain from these mining sites to Congo Dongfang Mining (CDM), one of the largest mineral processors in the DRC and a wholly owned subsidiary of Chinese mineral company Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt Ltd (Huayou Cobalt).

The report says that Huayou Cobalt sources more than 40% of its cobalt from the DRC and processes the raw mineral before selling it to battery makers, who claim to supply companies including Apple, Microsoft and Vodafone. This supply chain has not been independently verified by the Guardian.

Responding to the allegations, Huayou Cobalt told Amnesty International that “our company has not been aware that any of our legitimate suppliers has hired child labour in their mining sites or operated in unsafe working conditions …

Another story on it

https://www.rt.com/news/329420-amnesty-cobalt-child-labor-apple/

Amnesty International is calling out major tech manufacturers – including Apple, Microsoft, Sony and others for their alleged links to illegally-sourced cobalt in the volatile Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC

Will Kabila allow an election to happen?

Congo's foreign minister insists that elections will take place after technical problems are resolved.

Raymond Tshibanda, addressing the U.N. General Assembly's annual ministerial meeting, said until then people should not resort to bloodshed.

Tensions have risen as indications have increased that President Joseph Kabila will stay in office after his term legally ends in December, sparking violent demonstrators.

Congo's electoral commission has said that November's scheduled presidential vote won't be possible, and a court has determined Kabila can stay in power until another election is organized.

"Any recourse to using violence should be strongly condemned and the perpetrators punished," Tshibanda said.

The U.N. Security Council earlier this week urged all parties in Congo to end violent clashes and open a peaceful political dialogue on the holding of elections.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/latest-france-fighting-syria-cease-fire-42310346

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/21/opinion/a-foolish-power-grab-in-congo.html

Under the Constitution, Mr. Kabila is supposed to vacate the presidency when his mandate runs out, on Dec. 19. But his ruling coalition and part of the opposition agreed last month to delay a presidential vote until at least April 2018, citing logistical problems in registering millions of voters. Under their plan Mr. Kabila would remain in office until that election... As pressure mounts on the government, Mr. Kabila has done what embattled governments often do: crack down on the media that provide citizens with their most reliable news. Radio France International and the United Nations-funded Radio Okapi have both had their signals jammed recently. Also, increasing numbers of political activists have been arrested.

African nations can fight back against Mr. Kabila’s dangerous power grab by joining Security Council members in sending a forceful message that the president must leave office on Dec. 19, as originally planned...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/protesters-defy-congolese-president-as-he-attempts-to-extend-rule/2016/12/20/35c308f9-aceb-440f-84a8-c225e9d2bc44_story.html?tid=a_inl&utm_term=.d15868146a8f

What a mess. I don't think Congo has ever had a peaceful transition from one president to another

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/28/world/africa/congo-kasai-kabila-militia-graves.html

In the town of Nganza, in the heart of the Democratic Republic of Congo, the dead have been decomposing for months. Now it may be too late to identify them. The ground that covers them has turned almost smooth again. The only sign that there are people buried here are the government soldiers in red berets and aviator sunglasses, posted nearby with AK-47s.

They are deployed not for protection but to stop anyone from investigating witnesses’ claims that the security forces went door to door here in March, gunning whole families down in their homes and then closing the doors behind them.

The slaughter in Nganza was part of a wider conflict that has engulfed the Kasai, a region in the center of this vast country, where government forces are fighting a militia opposed to President Joseph Kabila. The violence, rooted in political and economic grievances, was ignited last August when troops killed the group’s leader, a hereditary chief who went by the name of Kamwina Nsapu (pronounced ka-MEE-na SA-poo) meaning “black ant.” His followers, many of them children, retaliated, and the conflict spread like wildfire.

The Roman Catholic Church, one of the few institutions in the country that provides reliable statistics, estimates that at least 3,300 people have been killed in the region since October. More than 1.4 million people have been displaced internally or are flooding into Angola.

did you know that ilx does not have a thread for rwanda?

this ep of afropop worldwide is v relevant imo and devastating: http://afropop.org/audio-programs/kizito-mihigo-and-the-politics-of-music-in-post-genocide-rwanda

This interview with Andrew Mitchell, former Secretary of State for International Development, was revealing of the UK government's attitude to Paul Kagame:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N046fZRGK3U

Gavin Davies: "In the last two elections he's been over 90%, is that a true reflection of public support for him?"

Andrew Mitchell: "I really think it is".

three killed during protests against kabila's refusal to vacate office
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/31/world/africa/congo-protest-joseph-kabila.html

not crisis related just some amazing photos of mountain gorillas mostly in congo and some in rwanda (and Uganda - the reserve is on the border w/ DRC). i'd love to visit one day

https://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2018/01/mountain-gorillas-at-home/549962/

https://cdn.theatlantic.com/assets/media/img/photo/2018/01/gorillas/g21_92935161/main_900.jpg?1515444786

what a place

https://cdn.theatlantic.com/assets/media/img/photo/2018/01/gorillas/g08_92945996/main_900.jpg?1515438934

My impression has always been more:

https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/0*dSW6nP7nemg4iG0p.jpg

mama and baby gorillas <3

it's a country of great pain and great beauty xp

a land of contrasts.................

Kabila leaving presidency after 17 years. I wonder what the catch is.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/08/world/africa/joseph-kabila-congo.html

Ebola still a problem though too

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/10/world/africa/congo-election-tshisekedi-fayulu.html

never ending :/

obviously any political change is likely to be fraught at best but is this necessarily a bad thing long term?

hopefully it doesn't devolve into violence. generally speaking yeah i feel like peaceful transitions of power are a sign of a stabile society. but whether it remains stable is the key.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jan/12/raf-veteran-admitted-killing-un-secretary-general-dag-hammarskjold-in-1961

If anyone knows of any reading that deals with the later colonial period up to mobutu's takeover I'd be grateful for some recommendations

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jan/12/raf-veteran-admitted-killing-un-secretary-general-dag-hammarskjold-in-1961

― ogmor, 12. januar 2019 20:26 (two days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

The director is Danish and I hate his latest films so much and have planned to write a character assassination piece for years when I got the chance. But it sounds like he has figured out why he went wrong lately and actually made something really important. And it pisses me off :(

(Reuters) - Conflict and escalating violence have uprooted a record 6.9 million people in the Democratic Republic of Congo, mostly in the east of the country, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said on Monday.

Years of rebel conflict and recurrent natural disasters have helped fuel one of the largest humanitarian crises in the world.

Most of those forced to flee their homes live in the eastern provinces of North Kivu, South Kivu, Ituri and Tanganyika, according to the data collected by the United Nations.

https://www.africanews.com/2023/10/30/un-says-record-69-million-people-internally-displaced-in-the-dr-congo/

Tutsis and militias loyal to government are fighting again

Been seeing more social media posts about Eastern Congo issues but not any new ideas about what to do

What is happening in the Congo is a proxy war waged by regional and external powers...watch here 👇🏿 https://t.co/PUiKUuvoqk

— K.Diallo ☭ (@nyeusi_waasi) November 11, 2023