Dr. Cécile Kyenge Kashetu, first black Italian cabinet minister, is Congolese-born

(PHOTO: Dr. Cécile Kyenge Kashetu, 49, new Italian minister for Integration)***Enrico Letta, the new Italian leftist prime minister, has justappointed the first ever black cabinet minister in Italian history.The new minister was until her appointment an MP of the leftistDemocratic Party (PD), Cécile Kyenge Kashetu, who has to manage thecontentious portfolio of Integration, a newfangled political-correctministry.And she happens to be a Congolese-born...

Read More

Earl W. Gast, USAID Deputy Administrator for Africa, talks governance with representatives of DRC civil society

(PHOTO: CLOCKWISE: Lea Ndombasi, youth organizer; Yangu Kiakwama,opposition political activist; an unidentified civil society actor;me; USAID/DRC Acting Mission Director Catherine Andang; USAID/DRCMission Director Diana Putman; USAID Deputy Administrator for AfricaEarl W. Gast; Chief of staff of USAID Africa Bureau Sean Maloney; andAngèle Makombo-Eboum, opposition leader)***For his first visit to Kinshasa, Earl W. Gast, USAID DeputyAdministrator...

Read More

Rwanda is reinforcing M23 for final assault on Goma

(PHOTO: Jules Hakizimwami, right, Speaker of the North-Kivu ProvincialAssembly, with Governor Julien Paluku)***Jules Hakizimwami, Speaker of the North-Kivu Provincial Assembly, helda press briefing in Goma on Thursday, April 4, in which he washysterically denouncing Rwanda for sending personnel reinforcement toM23 positions over the course of these last three days.Strangely, as was noted by the Radio Okapi report on Hakizimwami'spress briefing, the...

Read More

A specimen of the new breed of Ugly Americans: Howard G. Buffet

(PHOTO 1: Howard G. Buffet, billionaire philanthropist andself-appointed stakeholder in the African Great Lakes Region)(PHOTO 2: Erstwhile CIA operative and US State Department officialHank Crumpton, CEO of the Crumpton Group and pen-for-hire of Howard G.Buffet)***Writing yesterday in the Kigali-based daily New Times, reporterEugene Kwibuka celebrated--no doubt as a vindication of the Rwandangovernment unconvincing denial of its involvement in...

Read More

M23 chief Bertrand Bisimwa: Apocalypse Now

(PHOTO: Bertrand Bisimwa at a press briefing at Bunagana yesterday)***With the full deployment by the end of this month of the MONUSCOIntervention Brigade, M23 political head Bertrand Bisimwa may mostdefinitely have started feeling the ground opening up under him andhis posse of international bandits.In his reaction to the UN Security Council resolution 2098 (2013)setting up an "Intervention Brigade" to go after M23 and other armedgroups, Bisimwa,...

Read More