Dozens of people have died in the Democratic Republic of Congo after torrential rains flooded the capital, Kinshasa, in the last few days, and destroyed hundreds of homes. The Ndjili River running through the megacity of 17 million people, one of the largest on the continent, burst its banks and submerged major roads, including Lumumba…
Three American citizens who were sentenced to death over a failed coup attempt in the Democratic Republic of Congo have had their sentences commuted to life imprisonment, according to a spokeswoman for the Central African country’s president. The three Americans were among 37 people condemned to death last September after taking part in a May…
The leaders of the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda have called for a cease-fire in eastern Congo in a bid to end the latest deadly chapter in a three-decade conflict. Presidents Félix Tshisekedi of Congo and Paul Kagame of Rwanda committed to an “immediate and unconditional cease-fire,” according to a joint statement issued with…
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…
In his first interview since an armed group backed by Rwanda seized swaths of his country’s territory this year, Felix Tshisekedi, the president of the Democratic Republic of Congo, offered the United States and Europe a stake in his country’s vast mineral wealth, a sector currently dominated by China. Congo is considered to be among…
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…
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…