DRC

Six soldiers killed in DR Congo ambush

NEWS STORY

Source: AFP

Goma, 31 August 2015 - Six Congolese soldiers were killed on Monday in Democratic Republic of Congo's North Kivu province, a region where Rwandan Hutu rebels are known to operate, regional and military sources said.

The attack took place in Rugari, some 50 kilometres (30 miles) north of Goma, the capital of North Kivu.

"A Republican Guard jeep was ambushed in Rugari," said Justin Mukanya, administrator of Rutshuru territory which lies on the border of Rwanda and Uganda.

"Six soldiers were killed by a rocket during in the ambush," he said, indicating that the attackers had not yet been identified but that an inquiry was under way.

An intelligence officer based at the military's regional headquarters in Goma confirmed that six soldiers had been killed in an incident which took place between 0700 and 0800 GMT.

Rutshuru is one of the main areas of operation for Hutu rebels from the FDLR (Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda).

The DRC government of President Joseph Kabila has been under international pressure to tackle the FDLR, which is among the most intractable of many armed groups operating in the North and South Kivu provinces, displacing scores of thousands of villagers.

The Rwandan rebels, numbering between 1,500 and 2,000, are blamed for killings, rapes, lootings and the forced enlistment of children in the resource-rich Kivus, where they also traffic in timber and gold.

Sprawling DR Congo has been the scene of some of Africa's bloodiest wars.

Its mineral-rich North Kivu region has been torn apart by conflict for over two decades and the UN's Congo mission has stationed most if its 20,000 peacekeepers there.

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RWANDA

Rwanda Organising Leadership Summit to Unlock Africans’ Potential

NEWS STORY

Source: http://ktpress.rw/rwanda-organising-leadership-summit-to-unlock-africans...

31 August 2015 - Hundreds of African youths and corporate managers will next month gather in Rwanda’s capital Kigali for a leadership summit aimed at unlocking leadership potentials.

“We strongly believe that it is time for Africa to rise and take our place in the world. It is time for the student to become the teacher and the borrower to become the lender,” Emmanuel Ruvurajabo, a member of the organizing team told KT Press.

The summit will attract key speakers from Rwanda, United States, Canada, Kenya and South Africa.

Rwanda is seen as a living example of a country with good leadership that Africans can eagerly emulate and the right place to host the summit.

The summit is organized by Kingdom Builders association in collaboration with International Third World Leaders Association.

“Some key discussions will focus on experience of Rwanda’s extraordinary leadership from the post genocide era, and success story of Rwanda as an example of good leadership in Africa,” Ruvurajabo said.

At the summit, young Rwandans and Africans will be equipped and boosted by fellow leaders who exemplify what visionary leadership can accomplish in changing the course of nations.

Rwanda’s renowned religious leader, Bishop John Rucyahana, will be among the guest speakers to share their experience of leadership. He will be joined by other renowned global leaders, inspired by Dr. Myles Munroe, founder of International Third World Leadership Association.

Dr. Munroe, a renowned speaker and writer, had a vision of transforming followers into leaders and leaders into agents of change.

“He believed that the third world should start raising to higher standards…we have human resources, we have infrastructure and natural resources better than any other place in the world,” Ruvurajabo told KT Press.

Ruvurajabo told KT Press that he believes Rwanda is an excellent example of what vision can do for an entire nation.

“This is why we believe it is time to export, not only the raw material, but also the knowledge and ingenuity of Africa.”

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BURUNDI

Ruling party official among three killed in Burundi flare-up

NEWS STORY

Source: APA

31 August 2015 - Three people, including a senior member of the ruling party, were killed on Sunday night in the latest upsurge of violence in Bujumbura, eyewitnesses’ claimed.The ruling party official whose identity has not been revealed had recently moved to Ruyaga in Bujumbura Rural province after fleeing his Buzige village for security reasons.

His house was burned during protests against President Pierre Nkurunziza’s third term.

Police surrounded the scene to try to round up the perpetrators, eyewitnesses said, confirming the death of two people in Musaga district, a student from Burundi University and a servant.

Three other people were injured, eyewitnesses added.

The assailants were wearing military uniform and disappeared soon after the attack.

Since the crisis in Burundi was triggered last April by Pierre Nkurunziza’s bid for a third bid as president, no night passes without gunshots being heard in some neighbourhoods of the capital Bujumbura.

Burundi Accuses East African Neighbor of Sheltering Insurgents

NEWS STORY

Source: Bloomberg

By Desire Nimubona

31 August 2015 - The head of Burundi’s parliament accused an unidentified East African nation of providing shelter for insurgents who have carried out attacks since President Pierre Nkurunziza declared his bid for a third term.

National Assembly Chairman Pascal Nyabenda said he’d expressed Burundi’s deep concern over recent attacks during his visit to Uganda, which along with Kenya, Rwanda, Burundi and Tanzania comprises the East African Community, a regional bloc. Insurgents have been reported in Northern provinces, close to the Rwandan border, since Burundi’s crisis erupted in April.

Such assaults "are not acceptable as there is a treaty in the bloc that suggests that no country of the bloc can be used as a rear base to attack another member state," Nyabenda told reporters Monday in Burundi’s capital, Bujumbura.

Nkurunziza was sworn in for a disputed third term on Aug. 20, after violence that since April left at least 90 people dead and drove 180,000 others to seek refuge in countries in the region. Opponents say the 51-year-old’s re-election in July violated a two-term limit set out in peace accords that ended a 12-year civil war in 2005.

Alleged Detainees

The East African, a regional newspaper, this weekend reported that Burundi is holding more than 50 Rwandan citizens without trial for alleged espionage, amid tensions between the neighboring nations that could have regional repercussions.

Rwanda has communicated a list of the alleged detainees to the Burundian government, the publication cited a Rwandan envoy as saying. Burundi’s ambassador to Rwanda wasn’t available for comment, it said.

Civil wars in the early 1990s in the two nations, which have a similar ethnic mix, helped lay the ground for conflict in neighboring copper-producing Democratic Republic of Congo, the deadliest war in the continent’s modern history.

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UGANDA

Ugandan president Museveni meets Machar’s delegation in Kampala

NEWS STORY

Source: Sudan Tribune

30 August 2015 - President Yowerei Museveni of Uganda has held unexpected high profile meeting with a high level delegation from the South Sudan’s armed opposition faction under the leadership of former vice president, Riek Machar, days after a peace deal was signed by two warring parties in South Sudan.

The SPLM-IO said the meeting took place in the Ugandan capital, Kampala, on Saturday following an invitation extended to the former rebel group after signing of a final peace agreement with President Salva Kiir, which was brokered by the East African regional bloc, IGAD, and its international partners.

“Our Chairman and Commander-in-Chief, Comrade Dr. Riek Machar Teny-Dhurgon, dispatched a high level delegation to Kampala and met with President Yoweri Museveni,” Machar’s spokesman, James Gatdet Dak, told Sudan Tribune on Sunday.

“They met President Museveni on Saturday and the meeting was cordial,” Dak said, but declined to provide details of the outcome of the meeting.

He however said the high profile interaction discussed a wide range of issues on implementation of the peace agreement and relations between Kampala and the opposition group.

South Sudan’s opposition has since last year opened an office in the Ugandan capital and dispatched a representative based in Kampala to deal with humanitarian issues and build on mending relations between the two.

The 10-member opposition delegation was led by the deputy chairman and deputy commander-in-chief of the Sudan Peoples’ Liberation Movement/Army in opposition, General Alfred Ladu Gore.

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CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC

UBLIC OF CONGO

Central African Republic council adopts new constitution

NEWS STORY

Source: Reuters

1 September 2015 - The transitional council in Central African Republic has adopted a constitution designed to form the base of a new government as the country attempts to turn a page on years of violence, government officials said on Monday.

Before it becomes law, the constitution agreed on Sunday must pass a referendum set for October 5 and followed by legislative and presidential elections on Oct. 18, with a second round slated for October 22.

"The sovereign people will say at the constitutional referendum whether the liberties and fundamental rights ... [in this document] permit the re-founding of the republic," said Alexandre-Ferdinand Nguendet, president of the National Transitional Council.

The country descended into chaos in March 2013 when predominantly Muslim Seleka rebels seized power, triggering reprisals by "anti-balaka" Christian militias who drove tens of thousands of Muslims from the south in a de facto partition.

The transitional council, which passed the constitution on Sunday with a large majority, was established under interim President Catherine Samba-Panza to lead the country to fresh elections.

The constitution obliges ministers to sign off on decisions by the president and prime minister.

"The government will also be under obligation to inform parliament each time it signs a contract concerning the country's mineral resources, said Bruno Gbiegba, vice president of the transitional council's legal commission.

It also includes a Senate, or second parliamentary chamber, and a National Election Authority, as well as a body dedicated to good governance, Gbiegba said.

Since independence from France in 1960, the country has six constitutions in line with the six presidents who have ruled.

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REPUBLIC OF CONGO

Congo-Kinshasa: International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances

PRESS RELEASE

30 August 2015 - Martin Kobler, Head of MONUSCO and Jose Maria Aranaz, Representative of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in the DRC call for strengthened policies to address enforced disappearances.

"On the occasion of the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances, I encourage the Government of the Democratic Republic of Congo to consider ratification of the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance. Indeed, reported cases of enforced disappearances especially of civil society, opposition leaders and media actors are a matter of concern for the United Nations. I therefore call on the authorities to strengthen administration of justice in an effort to effectively counter this phenomenon", declared Martin Kobler, Special Representative of the UN Secretary General in the DRC.

This celebration is a reminder that enforced disappearances remain a worldwide challenge to protection of fundamental