Just three weeks after their last protest, Congolese in several major cities (Bukavu, Goma, Mbuji-Mayi, Kananga, Kinshasa, Lubumbashi, and Kisangani, perhaps others) turned out for protests against the government after Sunday mass. The pictures were moving, once again: Barefoot priests leading parishioners, crosses held high, chanting the Lord’s Prayer and

For a long time, the opposition to President Kabila had a real problem: it looked too much like President Kabila. Many of its leaders––Vital Kamerhe, Moise Katumbi, Pierre Lumbi, Olivier Kamitatu––were allies of Kabila until recently. The main exception to this, Etienne Tshisekedi, is now dead, and his party has

The stiffest, more urgent challenge to President Kabila’s rule took place in major cities across the Congo today as members of the Catholic Church led protests against Kabila’s refusal to step down. According to the UN peacekeeping mission, 8 people were killed and 123 arrested when police and soldiers opened fire on

Today, Reuters and RFI released a simultaneous articles into the killing of Michael Sharp and Zaida Catalan on March 12, 2017. Drawing on the internal Congolese military court documents shared by the United Nations, It exposes the involvement of several government informers in the killing, and raises serious questions about the UN Board of Inquiry that had

Congo’s national assembly passed a new electoral law today. While it has become commonplace for pundits to reject anything proposed by the ruling coalition as a tactic to delay elections, we should not throw this particular initiative out with the bathwater. Most of the controversy enveloping the law concerned the “seuil de

On Thursday evening, a UN military base on the banks of the Semuliki river in northeastern Congo was attacked. According to initial news reports and conversations with Congolese army (FARDC) and MONUSCO officials, the attackers were wearing FARDC uniforms and attacked a small FARDC platoon next to the base before entering the

Human Rights Watch and the Congo Research Group launched the Kivu Security Tracker today. The joint project will monitor the worst violence in North and South Kivu provinces through maps, graphs, and analytical reports. According to initial results from the Tracker, from June to November 2017, at least 525 civilians were killed

As the tanks rolled down the streets of Harare this week, Congolese social media lit up. President Kabila was rumored to be panicking to see one of his stalwart allies depart. Congolese and foreign observers hoped that Mugabe departure could somehow provide inspiration for Kabila to leave, as well. The person

By ELISABETH CAESENS and JASON STEARNS There will be flurry of diplomatic activity on the Congo in coming days. Tomorrow (Thursday), the International Contact Group for the Great Lakes Region––a conclave of important donors and diplomats––will meet in The Hague to discuss, among other things, what to do about the

By CHRISTOPH VOGEL On the afternoon of 15 September 2017, the Congolese border town Kamanyola witnessed the deadliest massacre in South Kivu’s Ruzizi Plains since 2014’s Mutarule carnage. At least 36 Burundian refugees and two Congolese (a soldier and a policeman) were killed in what seemed a spontaneous outbreak of violence,