1) UN Peacekeepers Day 2013: 149 blue helmets killed in the DRC since 1999; & 2) A Diplomatic Row erupts between Rwanda and Tanzania

1) UN Peacekeepers Day 2013: 149 blue helmets killed in the DRC since 1999"MONUSCO peacekeepers on patrol.UN Photo/Sylvain Liechti." (MONUSCO photo legend)(Credits)Today is the International Day of United Nations Peacekeepers. And Congo, plagued by wars for over two decades now, has the dubious privilege of hosting close to 20,000 blue helmets. Lt. Col. Felix Basse, MONUSCO's military spokesman, took that opportunity to remind Congolese and...

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No Comment: Circling the wagons around UHURU KENYATTA & WILLIAM RUTO (African Union vs. ICC)

(PHOTO 1: AU Chairman & Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn) (PHOTO 2: ICC Chief Prosecutor & Africa's villain of the century Fatou Bensouda) *** "African leaders have come to the consensus that the process the ICC is conducting in Africa has a flaw. The intention was to avoid any kind of impunity in governance and crime, but now the process has degenerated into some kind of race hunting. "If you take the example of Kenya, the...

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After stifling domestic opposition and destabilizing the DRC, the Kagame regime is rewarded with $500m by World Bank

(PHOTO: President Paul Kagame, flanked by  UN Secretary General Ban ki-Moon and World Bank president Dr. Jim Yong Kim, at Kigali Village Urugwiro, Thursday, May 23, 2013) *** Kinshasa is boiling up with anger after details of the $1b World Bank cross-border trade and development package to the Great Lakes countries are emerging. The news of the aid boost was announced amid great fanfare Wednesday, May 22 in Kinshasa--the first stopover...

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A prison photo that angers the DRC government

  (This photo, taken on May 1 at Kinshasa Makala Prison and since gone viral on Congolese blogosphere, has allegedly angered the DRC government) *** This photo shows four men branded as "common criminals" by the Congolese government but described as "political prisoners" or enemies of the state by the opposition. From left to right:  1) Eric Kikunda, sentenced to life in prison for conspiring with death-row inmate Firmin Yangambi...

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Two Damning Reports on the DRC: The Dance with Death & The mystery of the elusive Congolese wolfram

(PHOTO: "Women fleeing to Goma, 2008"; Photo by Walter Astrada; The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas) ***Among the bevy of damning reports and statistics on Africa that came out this week, two reports released by the London-based NGOs Save the Children and Global Witness were particularly devastating for the DRC. The first report is the annual report Save the Children has been issuing on Mother's Day for the past 14 years. This year, it's...

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M23 opts for shoot-to-kill policy for its deserters

PHOTO 1: "A joint team (Malawi, Tanzania and South Africa) arrives in Goma on a reconnaissance mission ahead of the deployment of the Intervention Brigade in eastern DRC, 12 March 2013. Photo by Sylvain Liechti." (MONUSCO photo legend) PHOTO 2: Rwandan propaganda claims that these guys killing time at Ngoma Interment Camp in Eastern Province, Rwanda, are among the 689 defeated fighters of the pro-Bosco Ntaganda M23 faction. ***No one in the DRC...

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