Communiques – en

Please find attached and below a letter to President Barack Obama from 34 civil society, human rights, and religious groups in northern Congo, Central African Republic, and Southern Sudan, calling for urgent implementation of the new strategy released by the US government last month on tackling the problem of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA).

New report says the Lord’s Resistance Army is now the most deadly militia in the DRC

Wednesday, December 15, 2010 – This month the US and the UN Security Council must choose: will they hold accountable major perpetrators of continued atrocities in the Congo or collaborate with them to put the blame on a few guilty but minor scapegoats and some innocent people who are guilty only of challenging the major offenders?

For two years running Christmas has been a time of fear and terror for the people of north east Congo.

The report ‘Mining activity and mineral trade in the Kivu hinterland’
was commissioned by the Directorate General for Development (DG DEV) of the European Commission and aims to fill an information gap by identifying the principal mining sites and analysing the trade networks of the ‘Eastern hinterland’ of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), located in Maniema, North Katanga and Orientale Province, and the transport networks from these territories to the regional hubs of Bukavu, Goma, Butembo and Bunia.

Washington, DC — The Eastern Congo Initiative (ECI) announces the release of "An Urgent Call to Action: Strengthening United States Foreign Policy in the
Democratic Republic of Congo," a substantive policy paper, which provides a roadmap of actionable policy recommendations focused on stabilization.

JED condemns the illegal detention of Lambert Yuma and Chris Lumbu, radio producer and reporter, respectively, with the community broadcaster Radiotélévision Alfajiri in Likasi, Katanga province, southwestern DR Congo.

Kinshasa, 30 November 2010 – The United Nations Stabilisation Mission in the DR Congo (MONUSCO) is surprised to read in the local media that its forces have disrupted the signal of a local mobile telephone
network serving the town of Dungu and its environs.

Debate: 03.12.2010
Vote: 04.12.2010

Warning of decline in press freedom in Europe and Africa

Co-rapporteurs: Mr Jean Rodolphe Joazile (Haiti) and Mr Rainer Wieland (Germany)

Integration in action: New report highlights the potential of partnerships between local authorities’ partnerships in making migration work for development