D.R. CONGO

Secretary-General Appoints Mamadou Diallo of Guinea as Deputy Special Representative for the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo

Source: United Nations

New York, 11 May 2015 - United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today announced the appointment of Mamadou Diallo (Guinea) as the Deputy Special Representative for the United Nations Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO), where he will also serve as United Nations Resident Coordinator, Humanitarian Coordinator and Resident Representative of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

Mr. Diallo succeeds Moustapha Soumaré of Mali, who completed his assignment in March. The Secretary-General is grateful for Mr. Soumaré’s outstanding contribution and dedicated service for the past three years in supporting the implementation of MONUSCO’s mandate and coordinating the activities of the United Nations system in the DRC.

Mr. Diallo currently serves as the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) Regional Director for West and Central Africa. He brings to this position many years of experience with the United Nations system with over two decades of increasingly responsible managerial and leadership positions in development and humanitarian operations at the national, regional and international level.

Until 2012, Mr. Diallo was the United Nations Resident Coordinator, Humanitarian Coordinator and UNDP Resident Representative in Asmara, Eritrea. He served as Representative of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) in Mali from 2005 to 2009 and in Sierra Leone from 2001 to 2005. Prior to these assignments, he served as Regional Advisor in positions dealing with maternal health and family planning issues with UNFPA in Senegal and in the DRC, and as a medical doctor and Chief of Medical Staff in Guinea.

A medical doctor from the Université de Conakry School of Medicine (Guinea), Mr. Diallo also holds a Master’s Degree in Public Health from San Diego State University in California (USA) and a Diplôme spécial de santé publique from the Université catholique de Louvain (Belgium).

Mr. Diallo is married and has three children.

Seven bodies found in DR Congo's restless east

Source: AFP

At least seven bodies have been found in an eastern region of Democratic Republic of Congo where a series of massacres has left more than 300 people dead in seven months.

9 May 2015 - An AFP photographer said he saw the bodies of seven people, two of them women, being brought into the morgue in Beni.

The governor of North Kivu province, Julien Paluku, confirmed that seven bodies had been found in Matembo, a few kilometres from Beni, all of them hacked to death by machetes and axes.

He said "we do not know yet" if the killing was committed by Ugandan ADF rebels.

The Muslim rebels of the ADF, who launched an insurgency in neighbouring Uganda against President Yoweri Museveni in the mid-1990s, are accused of a series of killings in and around Beni that have left more than 300 people dead since October last year.

Men, women and children were massacred mainly with machetes and knives, prompting a joint operation by the Congolese army and UN troops to put down the jihadist fighters in December.

While a degree of calm was restored, the intervention failed to bring a halt to the killings of civilians.

The UN Security Council has mandated troops to take the offensive against the many armed groups active in eastern DRC, where more than two decades of unrest has displaced hundreds of thousands of people.

The latest killings, the first since the deaths of five people April 24, took place near an army base used by Congolese troops and UN peacekeepers.

UN troops ready to move against DR Congo rebels

Source: AFP

8 May 2015 - UN troops are preparing an offensive against Hutu rebels in the Democratic Republic of Congo after plans for a joint operation with the Congolese army fell through, the UN peacekeeping chief said Thursday.

Herve Ladsous told reporters following a closed-door meeting of the UN Security Council that the UN mission MONUSCO would carry out unilateral operations to drive out the Hutu militia based in eastern DR Congo.

"The Security Council has empowered us to act unilaterally. We are planning to that effect," Ladsous said.

The United Nations pulled its support for the joint operation against the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) rebels in February after Kinshasa named two tainted generals to lead the offensive.

UN officials demanded that the two generals, who are on a UN blacklist of serious rights violators, be sacked.

Ladsous said the Congolese government "doesn t want to create conditions" that would allow MONUSCO to carry out joint operations with the armed forces.

The peacekeeping chief did not provide details of the UN mission s planned offensive, but said it would require some cooperation with the army.

The FDLR was established by ethnic Hutus who fled Rwanda following the 1994 genocide of 800,000 people, mostly minority Tutsis.

Opposed to President Paul Kagame s Tutsi-dominated government, they are accused of carrying out brutal attacks on civilians in eastern DR Congo and of smuggling gold and charcoal.

Two FDLR leaders are wanted for war crimes by the International Criminal Court.

The United Nations is pushing for the disarming of dozens of rebel and splinter groups after two decades of conflict in the eastern DR Congo, much of it fueled by the lucrative trade in minerals.

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BURUNDI

UN Security Council weighs Burundi crisis

Source: AFP

8 May 2015 - The United Nations Security Council made an urgent appeal for calm and for fair elections in Burundi, but stopped short of addressing President Pierre Nkurunziza's decision to run for a third term.

UN special envoy Said Djinnit told the council's 15 member countries that conditions were "not ripe" for elections, according to the Lithuanian ambassador, who holds the body's rotating presidency.

Discussions are under way to move the vote to a later date in June, according to Djinnit.

The council members "called on all parties to refrain from violence," the Lithuanian envoy, Raimonda Murmokaite, said after the closed-door talks.

She said the council also "stressed the need to hold a credible, transparent, inclusive and peaceful electoral process and uphold the fundamental freedoms of opinion and assembly."

Asked about Nkurunziza's bid, Murmokaite recognized that "individual member states have different opinions so the council cannot pronounce itself on that issue because views vary."

Russia has blocked previous council initiatives seeking to take a position on Nkurunziza, saying the body should not get involved in the internal affairs of a sovereign state.

But Murmokaite insisted that the council meeting focused on the growing violence in Burundi. Protesters, meanwhile, called a one-day truce, saying the demonstrations would resume on Sunday.

US envoy Samantha Power warned of potential targeted sanctions from Washington on perpetrators of the violence.

She stressed that Washington considers Nkurunziza's efforts to seek a third term to be illegitimate, and urged him and his government to condemn the violence and call for restraint.

"We are seeing Burundi slide into violent turmoil," Power told reporters.

"Any further violence carries the risk of irreversible consequences."

She highlighted the distribution of weapons to youths backing the ruling party, in what she called an "extremely disturbing" development.

- Rising tensions -

Diplomats who attended the meeting, called by France, said Djinnit described the situation as tense in Burundi.

He stressed that informal discussions between opposition leaders and the government had focused on "conditions to appease the situation, but... focused on a (possible) third term" by Nkurunziza, diplomats said.

The East African Community bloc is on a fact-finding mission ahead of an emergency meeting to discuss the crisis on May 13 in Tanzania.

Djinnit said that the "EAC demands that the president publicly confirm that this will be his last term, guarantee political space for the opposition and address the flow of refugees."

More than 50,000 Burundians have fled their country since the start of political violence in April, according to the UN refugee agency UNHCR, which said that many more were trying to leave but faced hurdles.

"It is very important to illustrate the fact that the Security Council is fully mobilized to support the efforts of Said Djinnit and to stop the violence that we see and to create the conditions for a fair, transparent and inclusive election process," said French envoy Francois Delattre.

Nkurunziza, a former rebel leader from the Hutu majority who has been in power since 2005, has come under intense international pressure to withdraw.

At least 18 people have been killed, including protesters and police, and scores have been wounded since late April, when the ruling CNDD-FDD nominated Nkurunziza to stand for re-election, triggering daily protests.

EU, US call for Burundi election delay

Source: AFP World News

Bujumbura, 11 May 2015 - The European Union and United States called for a delay to elections in Burundi Monday after deadly protests triggered by the president's bid for a third term.

"We encourage the government of Burundi to take measures to calm the situation, and the idea of a delay in the electoral timetable would be for us a good thing," EU Special Envoy Koen Vervaeke told reporters.

US ambassador Dawn Liberi read a similar statement.

Vervaeke, speaking on behalf of the EU as well as Switzerland, said that "the minimum conditions to go for the elections are not met - that is, the freedom of the media and to demonstrate peacefully."

At least 19 people have been killed and scores wounded since late April, when the ruling CNDD-FDD nominated President Pierre Nkurunziza to stand for re-election, triggering daily protests.

Belgium, The Netherlands and Switzerland have suspended vital funding for the elections over the violence.

Belgium, the former colonial ruler, suspended aid to the electoral process in Burundi, withholding two million euros ($2.2 million) of backing. The first half of the package, another two million euros, has already been paid.

The Netherlands and Switzerland later followed suit.

Nkurunziza, a former rebel leader from the Hutu majority who has been in power since 2005, has come under intense international pressure to withdraw from next month's election and stand down.

African Union Commission chief Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma last week warned the time was not right for elections, and that it was "clear that there shouldn't be a third term."

Hundreds of opposition supporters defied government orders to end their demonstrations Monday on the streets of the capital Bujumbura, despite the security services ripping down barricades set up during days of protests.

The youth wing of the ruling CNDD-FDD party, the Imbonerakure, is accused of carrying out attacks against opposition supporters.

Vervaeke said it was "very disturbing" to have weapons in the hands of groups acting outside the remit of the official security forces.

Burundi's Pierre Nkurunziza defies EU and US

Source: BBC Afrique

11 May 2015 - Burundi's President Pierre Nkurunziza has rejected EU and US calls to delay controversial elections set for June.

He told the BBC that such a move would plunge Burundi into a deeper crisis.

At least 18 people have been killed in protests against his bid for a third term and more than 50,000 have fled to neighbouring states.

Belgium said it was suspending nearly $6m (£3.8m) in aid to Burundi, as the EU and US warned that credible elections could not be held by June.

Last week, African Union (AU) commission chief Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma also said the climate in Burundi was not conducive for elections.

Appeal for calm

Mr Nkurunziza told the BBC's Emmanuel Igunza that the protests against his third-term bid had been orchestrated by "outside forces" and the deaths were regrettable.

Burundi's opposition and civil society groups insist that Mr Nkurunziza's third-term bid is unconstitutional and he should step down.

But the president argues his first term does not count as he was appointed by parliament, not directly elected by the people. Last week, the constitutional court backed this interpretation.

Mr Nkurunziza, a former rebel leader, has ruled Burundi for nearly 10 years.

Protests against Mr Nkurunziza continued in parts of the capital, Bujumbura, on Monday.

The protests have taken place almost daily since Mr Nkurunziza announced his re-election bid on 25 April.

"We encourage the government of Burundi to take measures to calm the situation, and the idea of a delay in the electoral timetable would be for us a good thing," EU special envoy Koen Vervaeke said at a press conference in Bujumbura.

US ambassador Dawn Liberi read a similar statement, AFP reports.

Belgium, Burundi's former colonial power, said it would withhold about $2.2m it had pledged to help organise the elections.

It also said that it would pull out of a $3.5m police cooperation deal with Burundi.

Burundi's police have repeatedly been accused of using violence to end the protests.

The US has warned that Mr Nkurunzziza's re-election bid violates a peace accord which officially ended a 12-year civil war in the poor central African state.

Some 300,000 people were killed in the conflict.