On Monday morning, the BBC World Service made official what some in the region - from army officers to diplomats - had been muttering about for several weeks: That Rwanda is providing support to the ...
While the M23 rebellion is taking up most of the Congo news in Congolese and foreign press, a series of largely unconnected massacres has been taking a far larger human toll in the area of Bunyakiri ...
This is a guest blog by Ledio Cakaj, an independent researcher focusing on the Lords Resistance Army.On 12 May 2012, the Ugandan army announced the capture of Caesar Achellam, a Lord’s Resistance Arm...
The military situation in the Kivus remains volatile, with fighting continuing throughout the weekend as the mutineers - now dubbed the M23 movement - have migrated from their Masisi stronghold...
Euphoria has been spreading within the Congolese army over the past several days, as its officers declare victory against the mutineers led by Bosco Ntaganda. Over the weekend, their troops took cont...
According to various reports, Col Sultani Makenga joined the CNDP mutiny during the night. This is a significant development, since Makenga was the second highest ranking CNDP officer behind Bosco in...
Listening to various CNDP representatives on the radio, one might think that the rebellion launched by Bosco Ntaganda in early April had a political objective. As their spokesperson, Jean-Baptiste Ru...
The weekend saw a confusing situation develop in North Kivu, with serious fighting breaking out for the first time between Boscos troops in Masisi and the Congolese army. The "mutineers," as ...
This posting has been slightly changed after readers picked up some mistakes (last update, Monday afternoon). Feel free to submit corrections. As Congo Siasa readers will know, the new cabinet was of...
The Congolese Supreme Court issued a verdict on some of the legislative election disputes yesterday. I have posted a list of the decisions here. In general, the court went against some weighty intere...
While Bosco Ntagandas mutiny seems to have largely backfired, with many of the troops re-defecting back to the government, and over a dozen senior officers now under arrest, it is not yet over. While...
A previous version of this posting erroneously identified Lt. Col. Zairois as "Zaire." The former is an ex-CNDP commander from Masisi, the latter is an ex-PARECO commander from Rutshuru. It i...
President Kabila, during his visit to Goma, announced an end to the Amani Leo military structure, under whose aegis military operations had been conducted over the past two years. This stirred confus...
On Thursday, the national assembly elected its new leadership, placing Aubin Minaku at its head. However, the process was controversial, as the opposition is claiming that the majority manipulated th...
Nicolas Tillon works with Conciliation Resources, a peacebuilding organisation working with people affected by violent conflict. Ernest Sugule Kangoyangala is the director of SAIPED, a civil society ...
President Joseph Kabila held several meetings in Goma yesterday before traveling to Bukavu, with civil society as well as army officers. There have been conflicting accounts regarding his various sta...
After a series of meetings involving the Congolese government, Rwandan officials and ex-CNDP soldiers, there is still no clear idea of what compromise will be struck to end the stand-off between Bosc...
As President Kabila arrived in Goma yesterday, it appears that Bosco may have misplayed his hand. After asking troops loyal to his to defect from the army and to reinforce his personal guard last wee...
The situation in the Kivus remains tense as the personal future of one military commander, Bosco Ntaganda, has escalated latent tensions within the poorly integrated Congolese army.The stand-off appe...
Following my last blog posting, the situation has continued to deteriorate. Bosco Ntagandas position in Goma has been reinforced by a group of soldiers that was based with the former commander of his...
Gen. Bosco Ntaganda spends a lot of his time looking over his shoulder these days. The army commander, who was indicted by the International Criminal Court for abuses in Ituri as chief of staff of Th...
Without much fanfare, and after almost a year of staying in holding positions, the Congolese army launched a new military offensive on February 18th. Eager to improve on past operations, this one is ...
I have just returned from a quick trip to Kinshasa, my first in a long time.Several things surprised me. First, the city has developed spectacularly in some respects over the past several years. Doze...
When the music stops at some point in the coming weeks, we should know who will be in the next government, an event that, perhaps, provide the hapless bookend to the election debacle. But that depend...
I resisted, now I have to succumb to the temptation of joining the fracas that is Kony2012. Some thoughts about some apparent assumptions, in no particular order. The Kony2012 video is simplistic and...
Below is a guest post by Ida Sawyer, an Africaresearcher and advocate at Human Rights Watch.In the past week, a30-minute video about Joseph Kony and his rebel group, the Lord’s ResistanceArmy (LRA), ...
The original version of this article was published on the website African Futures, a project of the Social Science Research Council, which explores protest movements and resistance to authoritarian r...
Together with the Rift Valley Institute, I am organizing this years Great Lakes course, to be held in Bujumbura between July 7-13, 2012. The course is an intensive immersion in the regions rich polit...
Last December, while the diplomatic community was up in arms over the electoral fiasco in the Congo, a friend in Kabilas government pointed out: "Youll see, pretty soon the elected MPs will be mo...
Update: See here for an article written by historian David Newbury in 1997, in which he discusses the map presented by President Bizimungu. The Economist posted an article last week that would r...
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