A draft UN report says the Rwandan army and its rebel allies committed crimes in the Democratic Republic of Congo between 1996 and 1998 that could be classified as genocide.

La Mission de l’Organisation des Nations Unies pour la Stabilisation en République démocratique du Congo (MONUSCO) est sous la défensive depuis que l’ONG International Medical Corps a révélé au début de la semaine que des rebelles des Forces démocratique pour la libération du Rwanda (FDLR), et des membres d’une milice Mai Mai locale, ont violé […]

The United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (MONUSCO) is on the defensive since the NGO International Medical Corps revealed early this week that rebels from the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), and members of a local Mai Mai militia, raped at least 154 women in North Kivu, a few kilometers from a MONUSCO base.

A woman, who has not yet been identified, is the sole survivor of a plane that crashed in the city of Bandundu on Wednesday in early afternoon. She is in critical condition and receiving intensive care at the General Hospital of Bandundu.

Rebels from the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) have been reported in the North Kivu region of Walikale, where they are, once again, conducting a terror campaign against the local population.

Etienne Tshisekedi wa Mulumba, national president of the Union for Democracy and Social Progress (UDPS), announced on Wednesday his candidacy for president in next year’s elections. “Now that I am healthy again, I want to reorganize my party and put it into battle mode. So that, tomorrow, it may be able to run the country,” he said during a press conference in Brussels, Belgium.

The Independent Electoral Commission says $712 million will be needed to organize presidential, parliamentary, and local elections until 2013.

Reacting to the mounting opposition against the timetable released by the Independent Electoral Commission on Monday, the head of the IEC said on Wednesday that all those opposed to the timetable can seek recourse before the Supreme Court.

The first round of presidential and parliamentary elections in the DRC will be held on November 27, 2011. The head of the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC), Apolinaire Malu Malu, released the schedule on Monday during a press conference in Kinshasa.

Prime Minister Adolphe Muzito signed a $42 million loan agreement with India on Thursday for the construction of the Kakobola dam in Bandundu Province.