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Having been the subject of the Oscar-nominated documentary Virunga in , the park grew fast in popularity until May when the kidnapping of two British nationals led to it indefinitely suspending all tourism operations. The pair were released unharmed, but management have said they won't welcome more visitors until they can guarantee their safety. Ninety minutes west of Kinshasa, just beyond the city's sprawl, this excellent project provides a home for orphaned bonobos. Long thought to be chimpanzees, bonobos are actually a separate species known for being much more peaceful than their cousins.
They're also endangered, with only around 50, surviving in the wild. Trails here lead around the large, forested enclosures, but the playful bonobos often hang out right at the front, especially in the morning. Sub-Saharan Africa's second-largest city, Kin as locals universally call it sprawls seemingly forever from the banks of the Congo River to its distant shanty towns. Shot through with chaos, music and a lust for life that is as infectious as it is overwhelming, Kinshasa is a city you experience rather than visit.
While it has the same maniacal drivers, dismaying poverty, mounds of trash, terrible air pollution and persistent street hawkers that you've seen in many other African cities, here it's all bigger, faster and louder than you've probably experienced before, and there's no better place for a whirlwind introduction to Congolese life. Having been almost wiped off the map by the eruption of the nearby Nyiragongo volcano in , Goma has done much rebuilding in the past decade and a half, and as a result the city has a surprisingly attractive centre.
Indeed, it's fascinating to visit the parts of town that are covered in the lava field, and see how the resilient locals have gone back to their lives and rebuilt their houses in these new and challenging conditions. People generally visit Goma en route to tracking mountain gorillas, climbing Nyiragongo or trekking in the Rwenzori Mountains. The city itself has no proper attractions, but it's a great pre- and post-Virunga hang-out, with some excellent sleeping and eating options.
Kisangani was known in colonial times as Stanleyville, and it is where the Lualaba River 'becomes' the Congo River.
It all tends to end up being about the people and not the ideas so much," Melissa said. Ideas have lifespans that last beyond people, beyond individuals. Having moved their lives to Bendigo to be closer to Melissa's family, the couple is developing a strong passion for their community. The Voice of Reason holds monthly public discussions on big life questions on the last Friday of every month from 6pm to 7.
Home News Local News. The government was widely believed to monitor some telephone communications. Throughout the country authorities sometimes arrested or beat a relative or associate of a person they were seeking to arrest. For example, on April 1, in the South Kivu Province town of Uvira , PNC officers searching unsuccessfully for a man apprehended his wife and their infant child instead.
The woman claimed the officers beat her with a club.
No known action was taken against the officers. The agents allegedly tied up and beat one of them before a senior officer intervened. The officer who ordered the beating by Lubumbashi police of Mimi Mbayo in place of her husband remained unpunished. Armed groups operating outside government control in the east routinely subjected civilians to arbitrary interference with privacy, family, home, and correspondence see section 1. Internal conflict continued in rural and mineral-rich parts of the east, particularly in Ituri District, northern Katanga province, and the provinces of North Kivu and South Kivu.
Unlike in the previous year, there was no confirmation of reports of Rwanda or Uganda providing material support to armed groups that operated and committed human rights abuses in the country, or of the presence of Rwandan soldiers in the country.
Security forces and numerous armed groups continued to kill, abduct, torture, and rape civilians, and burn and destroy villages. The security forces and armed groups continued to use mass rape and sexual violence with impunity as weapons of war and to humiliate and punish victims, families, and communities. There were also sporadic reports of death or injury from landmines laid during the war.
The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) also known as Congo-Kinshasa, DR Congo The Comité d'études du haut Congo ("Committee for the Study of the Upper Congo"), established by King Leopold II Records show that in , Belgian administrators ran the colony. 8, Tshikapa · Kasai Province, , In all areas of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the human rights record remained On June 8, authorities in Tshikapa, Western Kasai Province arrested The top three vote-receiving parties in the national legislative elections were the People's Main article: LGBT rights in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Fighting between the FARDC and armed groups continued to cause population displacements and limited access to conflict areas by humanitarian groups. Security forces and armed groups continued to recruit and maintain child soldiers in their ranks. A June 13 report of the UN secretary general on children and armed conflict in the country, which covered the period July to May, found continued recruitment and use of children in security forces and armed groups. At year's end more than 20, children, including nearly 3, girls, had been demobilized from government security services and armed groups.
NGOs estimated that as many as 30, children were once associated with armed groups. Although there were no reliable statistics, most credible sources, including the UN Children's Fund UNICEF , estimated that at least 3, children had yet to be demobilized and remained in the ranks of or held by armed groups. According to an October AI report, girls accounted for 15 to 40 percent of the child soldiers, but in some areas they constituted less than 2 percent of child soldiers demobilized.
AI attributed the discrepancy to a belief by NGOs working with child soldiers that girls among armed groups were either dependents or "wives" of adult fighters. Recruitment of children began as young as age six, according to AI. Some children were forcibly recruited, while others enrolled for food, protection, or to escape poverty.
Child soldiers faced violence from older soldiers and armed conflict. They were also exploited as porters or sex slaves. At times, verification of reported abuses in the east was difficult due to geographical remoteness and hazardous security conditions; however, MONUC's presence allowed observers to gather more information than would have otherwise been possible, and according to local NGOs, helped decrease human rights violations by armed groups during the year.
The constitution provides for freedom of association; however, in practice the transitional government sometimes restricted this right. Tags: congo, africa, democratic republic of the congo, democratic republic of congo, african, drc, kinshasa, patrice lumumba, congolese, flag, zaire, lumumba, dr congo, republic of the congo, black history month, black is beautiful, bob marley, central africa, congo kinshasa, droc, emancipation, nelson mandela, republic, sub saharan africa, black africa, congo flag, democratic, kenya, thomas sankara, activist, afrique, burkina faso, country, marcus garvey, melanin, muhammad ali, obama, president, republic of congo, sankara, symbol, afrika, belgian congo, blacks, brazzaville, congo brazzaville, congo republic, congo. Unlike the previous year, there were no reports that the Lendu -dominated FNI and other Lendu groups in Ituri District committed killings or rapes against civilians. Of an estimated 24 million adults of working age, , 0. Organisation internationale de la Francophonie. The DRC has the world's second largest contiguous rain forest after the Amazon as well as other ecosystems including Savanna, swamps and flood plains.
Government forces arbitrarily arrested, raped, tortured, and summarily executed or otherwise killed civilians and looted villages during military actions against armed groups during the year. During the year the government conducted some trials for abuses committed in the context of internal conflicts in the east. In general, the trials were flawed, and sentences were not always enforced. FARDC soldiers allied with renegade General Nkunda and not under central command authority allegedly shot and killed three children at close range.
On November 4, a military court sentenced a FARDC army captain to 20 years in prison for ordering the killing of five children in Ituri District in The captain then claimed the children were militiamen and ordered his men to kill them. Rape by security forces remained a serious problem. Civilian officials prosecuted rape more frequently than military justice courts; military perpetrators enjoyed almost total impunity.
Police, army and navy personnel, and ex-soldiers allegedly raped 32 women and two girls and systematically looted homesteads in Waka, Equateur Province on March Three suspects were arrested in June; the rest remained at large. The commanding officer of the battalion refused to hand over accused soldiers, although judicial authorities had issued warrants for their arrest. On April 12 a military court in Songo Mboyo , Equateur Province sentenced seven former MLC militia members to life in prison for crimes against humanity, including the December mass rape of more than women.
This ruling was the first judicial action against military personnel accused of crimes against humanity. The judge also found the transitional government responsible for the acts of the MLC soldiers. On October 21, five of the former militia members escaped from Mbandaka military prison and had not been found by year's end.
On June 20, a military court in Mbandaka, Equateur Province convicted 42 FARDC soldiers for murders and rapes committed in , which it considered crimes against humanity. Security forces recruited children and used them as soldiers during the year although the exact number was not known. He and his troops had also allegedly abducted five girls that month. Authorities later replaced the brigade's commanding officer. Unlike in , there were no reports that local authorities attempted to recruit child soldiers for armed groups.
Security forces arbitrarily arrested former demobilized child soldiers see section 1. Renegade General Nkunda, a former officer of the Congolese Rally for Democracy RCD rebel group and later of the FARDC, remained subject to a September international arrest warrant for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity committed since Based in a location in North Kivu Province well known to and monitored by the transitional government security forces and MONUC, General Nkunda continued to control an estimated 1, to 2, FARDC soldiers who operated outside the transitional government's central command authority, although the government continued to pay their salaries, at least periodically.
FARDC elements allied with renegade General Nkunda and not under central command authority killed civilians during the year. The soldiers summarily executed a civilian who refused to comply. FARDC elements allied with renegade General Nkunda and not under central command authority killed demobilized soldiers during the year. Soldiers of the 83rd Brigade beat a demobilized soldier to death on January 25 and then crucified him on a tree, allegedly for deserting the army and leaving the RCD political party. In Bwiza, North Kivu Province, 20 demobilized soldiers died in an underground holding cell in April and May after allegedly suffering cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment by soldiers of the 83rd Brigade allied with renegade General Nkunda and not under central command authority.
FARDC elements allied with renegade General Nkunda and not under central command authority raped civilians during the year. MONUC interviewed victims who claimed to have been raped by three or four soldiers, often in front of family members, including children. FARDC elements allied with renegade General Nkunda and not under central command authority recruited children into the military.
Soldiers ordered new child recruits to recruit other children, sometimes at gunpoint. At least 70 children were recruited in this way. FARDC elements allied with renegade General Nkunda and not under central command authority also re-recruited children. On July 30, these soldiers traced two ex-child soldiers to their homes and tried to persuade them to return.
Child protection NGOs stopped reunifying children with families in Masisi due to the risk of re-recruitment. Armed groups outside government control committed numerous serious abuses, especially in rural areas of North and South Kivu provinces, northern Katanga Province, and Ituri District.
During the year armed groups raped, tortured, and killed civilians often as retribution for alleged collaboration with government forces. They sometimes threatened and harassed humanitarian workers. Armed groups killed nine UN peacekeepers during the year. Unlike in , there were no reports of armed groups imposing travel restrictions on humanitarian aid organizations, human rights NGOs, or journalists. Unlike in , there were no reports of armed groups killing or kidnapping humanitarian workers.
Armed groups continued to use mass rape and sexual violence as weapons of war. Gang rapes were common and were often committed in front of victims' families. Rapes were often extremely violent and were generally accompanied by threats and beatings. These rapes sometimes resulted in vaginal fistula, a rupture of vaginal tissue that left women unable to control bodily functions and vulnerable to ostracism. In some cases sexual abuses committed by various armed groups in the east were limited in time or perpetrated sporadically, by multiple individuals.
Other girls and women were subjected to repeated rape over longer periods by a single perpetrator; some were forcibly abducted. These girls and women were commonly referred to as war wives, who often served both as fighters and sex slaves for their commanders. Armed groups, including Mai Mai , continued to abduct and forcibly recruit children to serve as forced laborers, porters, combatants, war wives, and sex slaves. Credible estimates of the total number of children associated with armed groups, many of whom were between the ages of 14 and 16, varied widely from 15, to 30, in Credible sources estimated that at least 3, child soldiers had not yet been demobilized countrywide by year's end.
Unlike in the previous year, there were no reports of uniformed armed men recruiting Congolese children in two Rwandan refugee camps for use as soldiers.
Armed groups continued to loot, extort, and illegally tax civilians in areas they occupied. There were no credible attempts by armed groups to investigate abuses allegedly committed by their fighters since or to punish those responsible. The FDLR, largely made up of Rwandan Hutus who fled to the Democratic Republic of the Congo in after the Rwandan genocide , continued to be led by individuals responsible for executing and fomenting the genocide. Several hundred opted to voluntarily demobilize and return to Rwanda during the year.
FDLR fighters continued to commit abuses against civilians, including killings, abductions, rapes, and recruitment of child soldiers.