DRC

$2 million to help victims of DR Congo ethnic strike: UN

NEWS STORY

Source: AFP

Some $2 million in international funding will go to help victims of the conflict between rival Pygmy and Bantu fighters that has forced thousands from their homes in the southeastern Democratic Republic of Congo, the UN said Tuesday.

19 August 2015 - The money will allow the United Nations and NGOs to provide emergency shelters, food and essential household items to over 60,000 people affected by the crisis, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

Fighting broke out about two years ago between a tribe of the Bantu majority, the Luba, and Pygmies from the Batwa group, who consider that they have long been marginalised, exploited and despised.

Raids on settlements and clashes have led to hundreds of people being killed as well as looting and the burning of villages in the southeastern Katanga province.

The money will also pay for schooling, a reconciliation programme and an effort to encourage the two ethnic communities to co-exist peacefully.

Of some 15,000 people who fled an April massacre about 80% have returned home, but have done so in a “context of extreme vulnerability” because their homes had been torched and their food stocks destroyed or looted, the UN said last week. The money is drawn from a fund managed by OCHA and financed by foreign embassies, including France’s. Fund-raising continues with a goal of reaching $5 million (4.5 million euros).

The Pygmies are a hunter-gatherer people with a deep lore of nature who have lived for generations mainly in the bush and tropical forests of DR Congo, the Republic of Congo, the Central African Republic, Cameroon and Gabon.

In DR Congo, their millennial lifestyle is threatened by deforestation and the spread of Bantu farming communities, along with mining of the country’s vast mineral resources.

Since 2013 in North Katanga clashes between the two communities have spread and the UN mission in DR Congo, MONUSCO, has reported tens of thousands displaced and dozens of villages razed.

Climat: la RDC veut être payée pour le rôle écologique joué par ses forêts

ARTICLE

Source: Belga (http://www.rtbf.be/info/monde/detail_climat-la-rdc-veut-etre-payee-pour-le-role-ecologique-joue-par-ses-forets?id=9056947)

19 août 2015 - La République démocratique du Congo (RDC) espère obtenir, pour s'adapter et atténuer les effets des changements climatiques, plus de 21,5 milliards de dollars de la part des pays pollueurs lors de la conférence mondiale (COP21) de l'ONU sur le climat à Paris, rapporte mercredi la presse kinoise, citant le ministre congolais de l'Environnement et du Développement durable, Bienvenu Liyota Ndjoli.

Entre 2021 et 2030, la RDC s'engage à s'adapter et atténuer les effets des changements climatiques. Concrètement, des mesures sont ou seront prises pour renforcer le stock carbone, en réduisant la déforestation et la dégradation des forêts.

Pour mettre totalement son imposant massif forestier à contribution dans la lutte contre les changements climatiques, la RDC réclame 21,622 milliards de dollars de la part des pays pollueurs, selon le principe du pollueur payeur, a affirmé mardi M. Liyota, lors d'une conférence de presse à Kinshasa.

Supprimer 77 millions de tonnes équivalent CO2 d'ici 2030

Ce montant représente les besoins en financement de la "Contribution prévue déterminée au niveau national" (CPDN) de la RDC: dont 12,54 milliards de dollars pour la mise en œuvre des initiatives d'atténuation annoncées et 9,08 milliards pour les mesures d'adaptation, a précisé le ministre, notamment cité par l'agence congolaise de presse (ACP, officielle).

Selon lui, la CPDN de la RDC porte sur la période 2021-2030.

Le taux de réduction des émissions de gaz à effet de serre prévu en l'an 2030, dans le cadre de la contribution de la RDC à l'effort mondial d'atténuation, est de 17%, soit environ 77 millions de tonnes équivalent CO2.

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RWANDA

Kagame Meets With US Special Envoy to the Great Lakes

NEWS STORY

Source: The New Times (Rwanda)

By Eugene Kwibuka

20 August 2015 - President Kagame, yesterday [19 August], received US Special Envoy to the Great Lakes Region at Village Urugwiro in Kigali.

Speaking to the media following the meeting, Thomas Perriello said that his discussions with President Kagame focused on the current political and security crisis in Burundi, the issue of the FDLR militia still roaming freely in eastern DR Congo, and how to bring about economic development in the Great Lakes region.

Perriello was appointed US Special Envoy to the Great Lakes Region early last month and he met President Kagame as part of his efforts to better understand issues in the region.

On Burundi, Periello added that there is a need for great urgency to resume political dialogue to end the crisis in the country, and for regional leaders and the international community to support Burundians to peacefully resolve their conflict.

He said that Burundi was at a critical stage where it needs support from regional leaders and members of the international community if the government there and its opponents are to reach a peaceful resolution.

"The most important issues right now are for leaders on all sides to seek peaceful solutions and eschewing violence," Periello said.

"But this is something that is going to have to involve all partners in the region as well as inside Burundi and the United States, the UN, and other members of the international community," he added.

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni has been mediating talks warrying parties in Burundi and recently delegated his defence minister, Crispus Kiyonga, to represent him at the negotiations in the capital Bujumbura.

Speaking about the issue of FDLR, a Rwandan militia based in eastern DR Congo which is made up of remnants of perpetrators of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda, the American diplomat described fighting the militia as long overdue.

"It is the position of the United States Government to pursue that issue and understand that it is something that has been around for far too long as a cause of instability; we will continue to push for progress and express our frustration where we don't see that progress being made," he said.

Several deadlines given by the UN and the International Conference of the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR) for members of the FDLR to voluntarily lay down arms and repatriate to Rwanda have been ignored.

French prosecutors fail to prove genocide charges against Rwandan priest

NEWS STORY

Source: RFI

19 August 2015 - French public prosecutors have called for charges to be dismissed in the case of a Catholic priest accused of taking part in Rwanda's 1994 genocide, 21 years after they started investigating the accusations against him.

Some 800,000 people, mainly from the Tutsi ethnic group, were massacred, before the Hutu-dominated government fell to Rwandan Patriotic Front.

Although Wenceslas Munyeshyaka's behaviour and statements during and after the slaughter "raise very many questions", the inquiry has been unable to conclusively confirm any "certain and specific actions" that prove his active participation, prosecutor François Molins said in a statement Wednesday.

Judges will now have to decide whether to send Munyeshyaka to trial or not.

In 1994 he was priest of a parish in the capital, Kigali, where people fleeing the violence took refuge.

Having fled to France with the help of the church he was arrested in 1995 at the request of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, which then handed the case over to the French courts.

In 2005 the international court accused him of taking part in meetings to plan massacres, handing Tutsi civilians over to Hutu militias, murdering three young Tutsis and encouraging or committing rape.

Munyeshyaka, who is now priest of a parish in northern France, has always denied all the charges and claimed that Hutu militias accused him of protecting Tutsis.

Up to 30 legal cases relating the Rwandan genocide have been opened in France.

The first trial to take place, in 2014, jailed presidential guard officer Pascal Simbikangwa for 25 years for complicity in crimes against humanity.

He is appealing.

Two former local officials, Tito Barahira and Octavien Ngenzi, are expected to face trial in 2016.

Rwanda: EU Lauds Rwanda's Peacekeeping Efforts

NEWS STORY

Source: The New Times (Rwanda)

By Collins Mwai

19 August 2015 - The European Union has commended Rwanda's efforts in peace keeping across the world as well as commitment to the cause despite the recent incident in which five Rwanda Defence Force (RDF) peacekeepers were killed in Bangui, Central African Republic (CAR) by their colleague, over a week ago.

Michael Ryan, Head of the EU Delegation in Rwanda, conveyed a message of condolence to the nation and the families of the bereaved while meeting the Senate president, Bernard Makuza, at Parliament Buildings, yesterday.

The soldiers were serving under RWABATT 2 contingent which is deployed under the United Nations Multi-dimensional Integrated Stabilisation Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA).

Ryan said Rwanda's efforts and commitment to peacekeeping missions in Africa and elsewhere was admirable and very impactful.

Rwanda has more than 5,000 peacekeepers in various peacekeeping missions across the world making it the fifth largest troop contributor to UN peacekeeping missions.

In CAR, Rwanda last year deployed about 850 RDF peacekeepers whose mandate includes protecting civilians, restorating security and order, and protecting the head of state, amongst other senior officials.

Ryan promised that the European Union would continue to support Rwanda's political and economic development.

"EU has been a partner of Rwanda for decades and continues partnership in the political and economic development of the country," he said.

He said areas of support include parliament, Abunzi (grassroots mediation committes).

Senate president Bernard Makuza said Rwanda had for long enjoyed warm ties with the European Union.

The envoy was also briefed on the recent countrywide consultations on the possible amendment of article 101 of the constitution, on presidential term limits.

In September, last year, Rwanda and the European Union signed a €460 million grant covering the next six years, to focus on energy, agriculture, governance and accountability.

Between 2008 and 2013, EU disbursed a total of Euro 290 million in general budget support under the Millennium Development Goals programmes.

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BURUNDI

Burundi: Washington envisage de sortir le pays de l’AGOA

ARTICLE

Source: Agence d'Information d'Afrique Centrale

Par Nestor N'Gampoula

Les États-Unis menacent les autorités burundaises de sortir leur pays du programme Agoa, la loi sur la croissance et les opportunités en Afrique, en raison des violences qui se sont intensifiées depuis la réélection controversée, le 21 juillet, du président Nkurunziza.

19 août 2015 - Lors d’une conférence de presse mardi, la sous-secrétaire d’État aux Affaires africaines, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, a indiqué que son pays était en train d’envisager de retirer le Burundi de la liste des pays sub-sahariens qui bénéficient du programme Agoa. Un programme qui soutient l’économie des pays africains en leur facilitant l’accès au marché américain.

Une fois réalisée, cette mesure fera suite à une autre déjà prise par Washington contre le Burundi. En effet, lors de la dernière présidentielle, le gouvernement américain avait décidé de suspendre son assistance technique à la Commission électorale burundaise. Par ce geste, les autorités américaines dénonçaient « les efforts continus du président Pierre Nkurunziza pour violer l’accord d’Arusha, briguer un troisième mandat et maintenir le calendrier électoral, sans fournir les conditions nécessaires à des élections crédibles ».

« Il y a au sein du programme Agoa un processus de révision pour examiner les pays qui ne sont pas en synchronisation avec ce que nous voudrions voir arriver politiquement et démocratiquement, en terme de droits de l’Homme, la sous-secrétaire d’État aux Affaires africaines », a expliqué Linda Thomas-Greenfield. « Il y a des discussions au sein du gouvernement des États-Unis pour réexaminer la présence du Burundi dans ce programme. Nous ne sommes pas encore tous d’accord sur ce point pour le moment mais je pense que ça arrivera dans un avenir proche si la