TheNewsGuru

Tag: DR Congo

  • 41 persons drown in DR Congo boat mishap

    41 persons drown in DR Congo boat mishap

    The bodies of 41 victims of a wrecked boat were recovered Thursday from Lake Albert, which lies between Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo), official sources told PANA ijn Kinshasa on Saturday.

    An administrative source in Bunia, capital of the province of Ituri in the North-East of DR Congo said the shipwreck occurred on Wednesday, not far from the Kolokoto fishing camp located in the Wagongo chiefdom in the territory of Mahagi in the province of Ituri.

    The outboard canoe belonging to a Ugandan had on board about 100 traders from the fishing camp of Runga in Mahagi territory who went to market at Panyimur, located in the district of Pakwac, in Uganda, when it capsized, following a strong wind on Lake Albert.

    The search continued in the hope of finding more than 80 other missing persons.

    In the DR Congo, shipwrecks often result in very heavy tolls due to overloading and dilapidation of the boats, the lack of life jackets on board, and night navigation and the fact that many passengers cannot swim.

    The navigation of small boats is prohibited at night on Congolese waters by the authorities. But this measure is regularly violated by carriers to avoid harassment.

    Last June, 18 people drowned after their two boats sank on Lake Albert.

  • Belgian king writes Congolese President, apologises for colonial-era cruelty

    Belgian King Philippe has expressed regret for the acts of cruelty committed during the years that his ancestor, Leopold II, presided over what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo, as his personal property.

    In a letter to DRC President Felix Tshisekedi on Tuesday, Philippe wrote for the first time of his deep regret for these past injuries, the pain of which is also revived by the discriminations that are all too present in our societies.

    The 60-year-old monarch also apologised for the suffering and humiliation caused after the end of Leopold II’s administration of the Congo Free State (1885-1908) when the country became Belgian Congo.

    DRC marks the 60th anniversary of the declaration of independence from its former colonial power on Tuesday.

    Historians estimate that the population of the Congo Free State may have halved to around 10 million people during the years Leopold II presided over the territory as his private property.

    The country and its people were exploited for natural resources, including rubber.

    After the violent death of African-American George Floyd in police custody in the U.S., there have also been demonstrations against racism in Belgium in recent weeks.

    Protests were also directed against monuments from the colonial era, especially statues of Leopold II.

  • DR Congo election body declares opposition candidate, Tshisekedi winner of presidential poll

    DR Congo election body declares opposition candidate, Tshisekedi winner of presidential poll

    Felix Tshisekedi has vowed to be the president “of all Congolese” after the Democratic Republic of Congo‘s (DRC) electoral commission declared him the winner of the country’s long-delayed elections.

    The result, which was announced in the early hours of Thursday, was rejected by rival Martin Fayulu, who was backed by opposition heavyweights and had led in polling prior to the December 30 vote.

    Tshisekedi had won with 38.57 percent of more than 18 million ballots cast, Corneille Nangaa, head of the election commission said at about 3am (02:00 GMT) in a news conference that appeared timed to avoid any immediate reaction on the streets.

    Tshisekedi received more than seven million votes compared with about 6.4 million for Fayulu, who had warned against manipulation.

    Emmanuel Ramazani Shadary, the hand-picked candidate of long-time President Joseph Kabila was third with about 4.4 million votes.

    Barnabe Kikaya Bin Karubi, one of Kabila’s top advisors, accepted the loss of the ruling party’s preferred candidate.

    “Of course we are not happy as our candidate lost, but the Congolese people have chosen and democracy has triumphed,” Kikaya told Reuters news agency shortly after Tshisekedi was declared the winner.

    The announcement came hours after the riot police were deployed at the commission’s headquarters in Kinshasa amid fears of violence due to a disputed result.

    Election observers reported a number of irregularities during the vote and the opposition alleged it was marred by fraud.

    The result could lead to the vast country’s first democratic transfer of power since independence from Belgium in 1960, with Kabila due to leave office this month after 18 years in power – and two years after the official end of his mandate.

    The Catholic Church said on Thursday the poll results announced by the electoral commission did not match its vote tally.

    Losing candidates can contest the results before the country’s constitutional court in the coming days. The swearing-in of the new president is planned for January 18.

    Some observers have suggested that Kabila’s government sought to make a deal as hopes faded for a win for Shadary.

    The result is expected to cause further suspicion that Tshisekedi struck a power-sharing pact with Kabila. Tshisekedi’s camp has acknowledged contacts since the vote with Kabila’s representatives but denies there has been any kind of deal.

    Speaking to thousands of cheering supporters in Kinshasa, Tshisekedi paid his respects to Kabila, whom he described as “an important political partner”.

    “He said he is willing to be a president for all the people of Congo and thanked Fayulu and Shadary, saying he is willing to work with them to build a better Congo,” Al Jazeera’s Haru Mutasa, reporting from Kinshasa, said.

    But Fayulu dismissed the results announced by the electoral commission as “a true electoral coup”.

    “The results have nothing to do with the truth of the ballot box,” he said in an interview with Radio France Internationale, calling on observers to publish the real results.

    Tshisekedi, 55, is the son of the late Etienne Tshisekedi, the face of the DRC’s opposition for decades.

    He has promised a return to the rule of law, to fight the “gangrene” of corruption and to bring peace to the conflict-wracked east of the resource-rich country.

    More than one million people were kept from voting on election day because of an Ebolaoutbreak and militia violence in opposition strongholds, mainly in DRC’s east.

    Observers said many polling stations opened late and closed early and in some places voting machines malfunctioned.

     

  • Ebola cases in DR Congo will rise in coming days – WHO

    Ebola cases in DR Congo will rise in coming days – WHO

    The World Health Organisation (WHO) has raised the alarm that cases from the resurgent Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) are expected to rise in the coming days.

    WHO’s Deputy Director General of Emergency Preparedness and Response, Dr Peter Salama, said in Geneva that there had been around 20 deaths as a result of the Ebola virus.

    Salama also said protecting vulnerable people in eastern DRC from the latest Ebola Virus outbreak was going to be “very, very complex”, given the huge logistical challenges and ongoing conflict there.

    The WHO emergency preparedness and response chief said: “We know for example that there have been around 20 deaths. We can’t at this stage confirm whether they are all confirmed or probable Ebola cases.

    “We expect however that the overall case count will rise in coming days to weeks, based on the trajectory of epidemics at this stage in their development.”

    Salama said that WHO was unaware of the public health emergency in North Kivu province when the UN agency a week ago declared the last Ebola episode over.

    The outbreak on the western side of the country in June, infected dozens, and led to 33 deaths, but in spite of several cases appearing in a major city on the Congo River, it was fully contained after a massive international and national response.

    The top WHO official said that there was “no evidence” to suggest a link between the two outbreaks, although it appeared “very likely” that they shared the same deadly Zaire strain.

    “The death toll from the current Kivu episode is likely to rise,” the WHO official said, adding that the alert was raised on July 25 after a woman and many members of her immediate family died after exhibiting symptoms consistent with Ebola.

    “That event appears to have been a woman who was admitted to hospital around Beni, and on discharge had recovered from the original complaint.

    “After leaving however, she came down with a fever and other symptoms that were clinically consistent with Ebola, and later on, seven of her direct relatives also contracted the disease,” he added.

    Salama explained how longstanding conflict in Eastern DRC – involving more than 100 armed groups in the Kivu area and elsewhere – created an additional level of difficulty in trying to contain the deadly disease.

    In the first week of February 2018 alone around Beni, attacks displaced more than 2,200, in addition to 1,500 displaced at the end of January.

    In the Djugu Territory to the south of North Kivu, inter-ethnic violence led nearly 30,000 to flee their homes to the provincial capital Bunia, at the beginning of 2018.

    “It’s going to be a very, very complex operation,” he said, noting that the vast country is home to the UN’s largest peacekeeping operation, the UN Stabilisation Mission in the DRC.

    One million of the province’s eight million inhabitants are displaced and getting access to some of those in danger of coming into contact with Ebola, will require an armed escort in some cases, the WHO official explained.

    There is also the additional threat that those fleeing violence may also head into nearby Uganda, Tanzania and Burundi, taking the infection with them, Salama said, noting that additional surveillance measures are being implemented at crossing points.

    “On the scale of difficulty, trying to extinguish a deadly outbreak pathogen in a war zone is at the top of the scale,” he added.

    In the most recent Ebola outbreak, a key part of the emergency response involved tracing anyone who had come into contact with suspected carriers of the disease, he said.

    WHO staff could travel hundreds of miles on a motorbike to do this vital work, but this is likely to be much more difficult in view of the high level of insecurity in the Kivus.

    One immediate priority is to confirm whether the latest outbreak involves the Zaire strain, since this can be treated with the same vaccine that was employed in Equateur province.

    “It’s good news and it’s very bad news. The bad news is that this strain of Ebola carries with it the highest case-fatality-rate of any of the strains of Ebola, anywhere above 50 per cent and higher, according to previous outbreaks.

    “So, it’s the most-deadly variant of the Ebola virus strains that we have, that’s the bad news. The good news is that we do have – although it’s still an investigational product – a safe and effective vaccine, that we were able to deploy last time around,” Salama said.

    NAN

     

  • NIG 1-1 DRC: DR Congo Leopards forces Super Eagles to draw in friendly game ahead of Russia 2018

    NIG 1-1 DRC: DR Congo Leopards forces Super Eagles to draw in friendly game ahead of Russia 2018

    The Leopards of DR Congo on Monday forced Nigeria’s Super Eagles to a draw in an international friendly match at the Adokiye Amiesimaka Stadium, in Port Hacourt, River State.

    Congo DR scored a second half penalty to hold the Super Eagles of Nigeria to a 1-1 draw .

    Nigeria started the game the better side with Simy Nwankwo shaving the bar with a left footed effort after evading his marker with a slick move inside the box of the Congolese.

    Francis Odinaka Uzoho in goal for Nigeria was forced into a save with his foot. A save which the young Deportivo La Coruna shot stopper had to adjust with his body to make as the ball was drifting away from him.

    NPFL top scorer, Junior Lokosa drew a foul with a sleek touch which helped him evade his marker and from the resultant freekick taken by Ogenyi Onazi, Kelechi Iheanacho took advantage of a misunderstanding in the backline of Congo DR to set up William Troost-Ekong for the only goal of the half.

    A raft of second half substitutions helped Nigeria regained the lead in terms of possession but the closet they came to scoring was when Etebo tried to lob the Congo DR defender after he was caught off his line trying to clear a ball.

    Ola Aina was harshly judged to have fouled his man inside the box with replays showing that the contact was outside the box but the referee pointed to the spot and Congo DR levelled from the resultant spot kick.

    Tried as they could Nigeria failed to regain the lead and the game which is the farewell game for the Nigerian team ended 1-1 despite five minutes of time added on after regulation time.

  • Russia 2018: Super Eagles will play DR Congo despite Ebola threat – Dalung

    Russia 2018: Super Eagles will play DR Congo despite Ebola threat – Dalung

    The Minister of Sports Barrister Solomon Dalung, has said the planned valedictory match for the Super Eagles before jetting out of the country for the World Cup in Russia would be played as scheduled.

    The Super Eagles are billed to face DR Congo in a friendly match on Monday, May 28 in Port Harcourt but the outbreak of the dreaded Ebola virus in the Central African country led to many expressing doubt about the fixture holding.

    However, the Sports Minister while speaking with State House correspondents on Monday, listed measures that have been taken to ensure the match goes on and at the same time avoid the contagious disease being brought into Nigeria.

    “Nigeria is going to play the friendly with DRC, I have discussed with the Federal Ministry of Health with the World Health Organization in participation, we have reviewed the situation and received adequate information about it,” Mr Dalung said.

    The minister further explained the steps that will be taken to keep the epidemic from Nigeria.

    “So we have agreed on major approaches. One, the DRC team is coming through a chartered flight and those coming for the match will be using that chartered flight and they would have been screened from the DRC and they will be screened here in Nigeria,” he said.

    “There is going to be no other person that is going to be admitted using any other means of transportation for the match.

    “We also discovered that the Ebola outbreak is limited to a particular place and it has not escalated. So, we wouldn’t want to run the risk of setting a precedent of which we will later be a victim.”

    Mr Dalung said based on the strict measures already in place, there was no need to fear and the match can go on unhindered.

     

     

  • DR Congo: Ebola epidemic enters ‘new phase’ as third case confirmed

    A third case of Ebola has been confirmed in Congo, the World Health Organization said Thursday, detected for the first time in a large urban centre, the north-west city of Mbandaka.

    “The arrival of Ebola in an urban area is very concerning and WHO and partners are working together to rapidly scale up the search for all contacts of the confirmed case in the Mbandaka area,” said Matshidiso Moeti, WHO Regional Director for Africa.

    Forty-four people are now suspected of having been infected with Ebola, three of which are confirmed.

    “We are now entering a new phase of the epidemic which is now affecting three health zones, including an urban health zone,” Health Minister Oly Ilunga Kalenga said in a statement. Mbandaka is a city of over a million people.

    On Wednesday more than 5,000 Ebola vaccines arrived in Congo as part of the UN’s efforts to stem the outbreak in the central African country.

    The vaccine is the same experimental substance that has been proved to be safe and effective in a trial among 7,500 people in Guinea in 2015.

    Guinea, along with Liberia and Sierra Leone, were at the centre of the 2014 Ebola outbreak in West Africa that killed 11,000 people.

    In the current outbreak, the WHO has said it is worried that the highly infectious and deadly haemorrhagic fever could spread from Congo to neighbouring Congo-Brazzaville and the Central African Republic.

    dpa

  • 19 dead, 39 infected so far in Congo Ebola outbreak – WHO

    The WHO on Monday confirmed 19 deaths in Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) following an outbreak of Ebola between April 4 and May 13.

    The WHO also confirmed 39 suspected cases.

    It said 393 people who identified as contacts of Ebola patients were being followed up.

    Information about the outbreak in Bikoro, Iboko and Wangata health zones in Equateur province was still limited, the WHO said in a statement.

    At present the outbreak did not meet the criteria for declaring a “public health event of international concern”, which would trigger the formation of an emergency WHO committee.

    The WHO said it has obtained 4,000 doses of Ebola vaccine and is preparing for deployment in the DRC, its Africa director said on Sunday.

    “We’re working on the deployment of these materials, especially readying the cold chain,” WHO Africa Director Matshidiso Moeti told Reuters by telephone.

    “The start date of the vaccinations will depend on this deployment.”

  • Ebola: DR Congo records more cases

    Four more cases of Ebola have been detected in the northwest Democratic Republic of Congo, doctors said Thursday, two days after DRC reported a fresh outbreak of the disease.

    Of the four affected people, two are caregivers at the hospital in Bikoro where the Ebola outbreak has been concentrated, the hospital’s chief surgeon Serge Ngalebato told AFP.

    The latest Ebola outbreak in the region most north of Kinshasa near the border with the Republic of Congo has so far killed 17 people.

    The World Health Organization (WHO) has made $1 million (842,000 euros) available to stop the virus from spreading to other provinces and countries, a representative of the UN’s humanitarian affairs agency OCHA told reporters.

    The Nigerian government on Wednesday said it was acting to prevent the spread of Ebola from the vast central African country.

    The federal government had put in place an emergency programme to monitor all border activity to keep Nigerians safe, Health Minister Isaac Adewole said after a cabinet meeting.

    Nigeria, which does not share a border with DR Congo, is the only country in West Africa with a mobile laboratory for haemorrhagic fevers.

    DR Congo authorities on Tuesday described the Ebola outbreak as a “public health emergency with international impact”.

    It is the country’s ninth known outbreak of Ebola since 1976 when the deadly viral disease was first identified in then Zaire by a Belgian-led team.

    AFP

  • 12 Tanzanian peacekeepers killed, 40 others injured in DR Congo – UN

    The Secretary-General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres on Friday said at least twelve United Nations peacekeepers have been killed in clashes in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

    Guterres said early reports suggested 12 Tanzanian peacekeepers were killed on Thursday evening in the North Kivu region in the east of the country.

    Another 40 were wounded in the violence, four critically.

    The UN’s peacekeeping mission in the country, known as MINUSCO, is believed to have been targeted by Ugandan Muslim rebel group ADF, one of several armed groups active in the North Kivu region, according to Congolese military sources.

    In a statement, Guterres said it was the worst attack on UN peacekeepers in the organisation’s recent history.

    “I condemn this attack unequivocally. These deliberate attacks against UN peacekeepers are unacceptable and constitute a war crime,” Guterres said.

    “I call on the DRC authorities to investigate this incident and swiftly bring the perpetrators to justice. There must be no impunity for such assaults, here or anywhere else.”

    Guterres said at least five Congolese soldiers were also killed in Thursday’s attack.

    The medical evacuation of causalities is ongoing, while military reinforcements have arrived on the scene, he said.

    DR Congo’s huge eastern region has long been wracked by violence, but fighting between government soldiers and militia groups, as well as inter-ethnic clashes, has increased significantly in 2017.

    The country has also faced violence after President Joseph Kabila, who was supposed to step down after his final term last December, pushed back a new vote until December 2018.