A quick news roundup before I go offline for a few days.
- Guy de Boeck has an article on CongoForum asking some questions about preparations for the elections – among other things, he points out that the constitutional revision has been put on the agenda of the national assembly without following the necessary procedure;
- Some more Wikileaks documents have been put up concerning the Congo, including some suggesting that George Forrest’s company was involved in smuggling uranium out of the Congo in 2006;
- The French minister for human rights finished a trip to the Congo a few days ago, concluding the the human rights situation was “a shipwreck;”
- Human Rights Watch put out a press statement a few days ago, drawing attention to the fact that since September there has been a wave of recruitment in the Kivus. According to HRW, both CNDP and FDLR have been responsible for a wave of forced recruitment, including of many children. Such recruitment is a bad sign – it often takes place shortly before an escalation of violence.