“Playing for Change, Singing for Peace” – A music festival in eastern Congo
Guest post by Timo Mueller, a Goma-based researcher, photos and videos courtesy Amani Festival In a region beset by violence, a music festival is a rare feat. This past weekend, more than 35,000 visitors from the Great Lakes Region of Africa and beyond visited the city of Goma in the Democratic Republic of Congo to celebrate … Continue reading
Tracing the deadlock in dismantling FDLR
Imminent military operations against FDLR stir controversy in DRC On January 2nd, a six-months deadline set by regional political bodies SADC and ICGLR together with the Congolese government and MONUSCO for the self-demobilisation of the Forces Démocratiques pour la Libération du Rwanda (FDLR) run out. However, it did not trigger substantial results and the long-standing … Continue reading
A Chameleon army? Coherence, performance, discipline in Congo’s FARDC
Today, the New York Times Magazine published an online photo series of the late Sergeant Madot, a female FARDC member, one of the few holding an officer grade in the Congolese military’s elite units. Accompanying the great picture essay of Michael Christopher Brown, a photographer who spent considerably time in Eastern Congo lately, the magazine’s … Continue reading
Rift Valley Institute Field Courses 2015
Having worked for the Rift Valley Institute’s Usalama Project as a Fellow in 2013, I am happy to share their announcement of this year’s field courses, covering three key areas of political competition and violent conflict in East and Central Africa. While my own little experience is limited to the Great Lakes only, it can … Continue reading
Amidst impending FDLR operations, insecurity is on the rise in North Kivu
It has been over two weeks ago, the concrete announcement of anti-FDLR operations by the Congolese army FARDC (with a still unclear role as to MONUSCO support) has raised waves of media comments, fears, and expectations. In the slipstream of this announcement, a number of difficulties seem to delay the actual start of the offensive and … Continue reading
Quelques ingrédients du succès d’Amani (Festival)
Guest blog by Jean-Benoît Falisse, outreach and communications manager of the Festival Amani 2015 Il y a différentes façons de répondre à la question “quelle est la plus importante ressource de la République Démocratique du Congo?” Pour la plupart des observateurs, c’est sans aucun doute ses riches ressources naturelles : cuivre, cobalt, diamant, or, coltan et … Continue reading
Who is going after FDLR and who not?
It has been roughly four weeks after a six-month ultimatum for Rwandan FDLR rebels to voluntarily disarm expired, until – on Thursday 29th January – military operations against the group were announced. In the slipstream of the visit of DRC’s army chief of staff Lt. Gen. Etumba, concrete announcements were made that FARDC will head … Continue reading
Electoral gamble fuels protests in Kinshasa and elsewhere
(Italic paragraphs added on January 25 and 26) As the Congolese government moves on to finalise changes in the country’s electoral law, a series of demonstrations and concomitant clashes between opposition and police forces have unleashed in Kinshasa (and other towns like Goma and Bukavu) over the past couple of days. Media and human rights … Continue reading
Ayiti. A thought and a retrospective.
Today marks the fifth anniversary of the disastrous earthquake that countless people and hopes in Haiti, a country that has not had an easy stand even before it was struck by such unthinkable catastrophe. It has been almost five years too, that I have not been there myself, so I am not going to give … Continue reading
Multiple surrenders of commanders cast a big blow on Raia Mutomboki
As international media focuses attention on a – finally – looming military offensive against the Rwandan FDLR rebels (Simone Schlindwein has a very recommendable backgrounder on this), the increasing series of surrenders in sequence to FARDC operations against various factions of Raia Mutomboki is remarkable (for two concise backgrounders on what Raia Mutomboki is – … Continue reading
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