Its soldiers are underpaid and underarmed. Its ranks are riddled with factions pursuing their own interests. And successive presidents are said to have kept it weak for fear of a coup. The Democratic Republic of Congo’s army has appeared too weak and dysfunctional to stop a militia that has swept through the eastern part of…
On one side of the lake, lovers glide on canoes, friends ride jet-skis and families pose for pictures in the hazy sunset. On the other side, less than two miles away, dead bodies washed ashore while ammunition and discarded weapons littered the water. The shore of Lake Kivu in Rwanda offers leisure and relaxation. Across…
Rebels in the Democratic Republic of Congo on Sunday entered the vital trading hub of Bukavu in the east of the country, according to the fighters and videos circulated by local residents. If confirmed, Bukavu would be the latest city to fall in a sweeping offensive that has revealed the weakness of the crumbling Congolese…
It was one of the deadliest battles in decades in the Democratic Republic of Congo. After the city of Goma fell to a rebel group known as M23 last week, the International Red Cross said that civilians had paid a heavy price, and that the death toll was expected to go up as more bodies…
Mechanical diggers have spent days excavating the dark, volcanic earth of the city of Goma, preparing long trenches in which to bury the victims of one of the deadliest battles in decades in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Humanitarian workers in hazmat suits and teenagers in flip-flops and dirty masks tended to the dead amid…
After a week of fighting, rebels backed by Rwanda have wrested almost full control over Goma, a city of two million in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. Hospitals are overflowing with the wounded, and the city morgue with the dead. Goma’s residents are beginning to emerge from their hiding places, desperately searching for water…
After Rwanda-backed rebels seized the Congolese city of Goma in 2012, powerful nations across the world registered their disapproval, announcing sanctions against Rwanda and other measures that led to the rebels’ defeat a year later. When those same rebels battled to capture Goma on Sunday, several nations once again voiced their criticism, but they have…
A rebel militia known as M23 has seized the key Congolese city of Goma, threatening displaced civilians and raising fears of a broader regional war. Some 400,000 people have fled their homes in eastern Congo as the rebels advanced on Goma, according to the U.N. refugee agency. In the last few days, many more have…
Hundreds of protesters attacked several foreign embassies and a United Nations building in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s capital, Kinshasa, on Tuesday as a rebel offensive backed by neighboring Rwanda in the country’s east threatened to spiral into a regional crisis. Anger at Congo’s foreign allies has been rising in the country this week over…