Priest Who Risked Life to Expose Rights Abuses in Congo, Rwanda Murdered

Priest Who Risked Life to Expose Rights Abuses in Congo, Rwanda Murdered 

24/03/2016

Displaced children in the Democratic Republic of 

Congo are seen in this file photo.

A Congolese priest dedicated to revealing human rights abuses in his country was gunned down this week by armed militants.

Father Vincent Machozi Karunzu, a native of the Democratic Republic of Congo who studied at Boston University's school of theology, was killed by members of the country's armed forces in the North Kivu province on Sunday evening.

As the Catholic News Agency reports, shortly before being gunned down, Machozi asked the gunmen, "Why are you killing?"

According to Vatican Radio, Machozi, who belonged to the Augustinians of the Assumption religious order, was killed shortly after he published an article criticizing the Congolese and Rwandan governments for human rights abuses against its citizens.

Specifically, a recent article from the priest had accused the local Hutus people of plotting with the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Congo to murder the local Nindu population.

Boston University also announced the priest's death on its website, with the university's African Studies Center director Timothy Longman, who was a colleague of Machozi, saying that the priest was dedicated to revealing human rights abuses in his home country.

"He was trying to show the world who was killed and who was responsible," Longman, who also serves as a College of Arts & Sciences associate professor of political science, said in a statement. "He wasn't on any particular side."

Theodere Sikuli, mayor of the North Kivu province, told Bloomberg this week that local authorities are still investigating the priest's death.

Machozi had studied for his theology degree at Boston University after facing multiple attempts on his life in his home country.

As Crux News reports, the Rev. Emmanuel Kahindo, who serves as vicar general for the Assumptionist religious order, says that Machozi communicated his fears for his life to him last October.

"My days are numbered. I will be murdered, I feel it [...] but like Christ, for the sake of our people, I will not be silent," Kahindo quotes Machozi as saying.

The Democratic Republic of Congo has received criticism in the past for its poor human rights record, with President Joseph Kabila being called to reform his country or step down from power.

As Human Rights Watch reports, the country has been criticized for a lack of regulation against government powers.

"Political tensions have risen throughout the Democratic Republic of Congo, as political and religious leaders, activists, students, and others have spoken out against proposed changes to Congo's constitution and other proposals that would allow President Joseph Kabila to stay in power for longer than the two consecutive terms currently permitted," the HRC states on its website.

"Government authorities have sought to silence dissent with threats, violence, and arbitrary arrests. In eastern Congo, dozens of armed groups remain active. Many of their commanders lead forces that have been responsible for numerous war crimes for which few have been held accountable. Congolese army soldiers have also been responsible for abuses against the civilian population they are meant to protect," the HRC adds.

Amnesty International USA has also reported on the country's human rights record, saying that in 2015 and 2016, "Government repression of protests against attempts by President Kabila to run for the presidency beyond the two terms allowed by the Constitution intensified," and "violations of the rights to freedoms of expression, association and peaceful assembly increased."

"Human rights defenders, youth activists and politicians were threatened, harassed, arbitrarily arrested and in some cases convicted for peacefully exercising their rights," the human rights group added.

By Katherine Weber

DR Congo at 'critical juncture,' amid rising political tensions - UN envoy tells Security Council

DR Congo at 'critical juncture,' amid rising political tensions - UN envoy tells Security Council

24/03/2016

Special Representative for the Democratic Republic of

the Congo (DRC), Maman S. Sidikou addresses the

Security Council

 
23 March 2016 – The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is at a critical juncture, with rising political tensions ahead of elections which could lead to violence if left unaddressed, the top United Nations official in the country warned the Security Council today, while highlighting key issues for consideration as it renews the UN's mandate there.

'Credible and meaningful political dialogue'

"First, credible and meaningful political dialogue is needed to overcome the impasse in the electoral process," said Maman Sidikou, the Head of the UN Organization Stabilization Mission in the DRC (MONUSCO), referring to presidential and legislative elections scheduled for November of this year.

"A strong message on the need for political consensus and an agreed, sustainable way forward will be important, while also emphasizing the link between a credible electoral process and upholding fundamental human rights," he added.

One month ago, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon was in the DRC meeting with President Joseph Kabila, other senior Government officials, and representatives from civil society; he called on them to engage in constructive talks, putting the interest of the population at the centre of the debate.

'Neutralizing armed groups'

"Second, I am optimistic that we can capitalize on the spirit of enhanced cooperation with the Government to make early progress on the priority armed groups through improved cooperation between the Mission, the Government and the FARDC [the Armed Forces of the DRC], and with the support of other partners," Mr. Sidikou continued.

He noted that "neutralizing armed groups goes beyond military operations and requires enhanced efforts to extend State authority and find durable solutions for former combatants."

Reducing MONUSCO military personnel

Meanwhile, the UN official underlined that he counts on the Security Council's support to reduce an additional 1,700 military personnel from MONUSCO, in line with the Secretary-General's recommendation.

"The recommendation takes into account the Mission's plans to transform the Force and measures to address inefficiencies. Based on projected capability and efficiency gains from the Force transformation, it was assessed that a further reduction of MONUSCO military personnel may be envisaged without compromising the Mission's ability to implement its mandate to protect civilians, including through the neutralization of armed groups," Mr. Sidikou stressed.

He further insisted that the recommendation should be viewed as a "concrete step forward" in facilitating the strategic dialogue between the Mission and the Government with a view to achieving a common goal: the gradual and progressive exit of MONUSCO "that preserves the gains and investments made so far."

Nationally-led disarmament and reintegration process

Finally, he said military pressure will only lead to sustainable outcomes if there is an effective, well-planned nationally-led disarmament, demobilization and reintegration process that ensures ex-combatants are processed back into their communities or to their countries of origin, while also ensuring that hazardous war materials are removed and stabilization efforts are intensified.

"The Government has begun planning for the reinsertion and reintegration of thousands of demobilized ex-combatants in their home communities. These efforts are to be commended and built upon," he said.

In addition to these considerations for the Council, Mr. Sidikou underlined his priority to fully implement MONUSCO's 'zero tolerance' policy against sexual exploitation and abuse (SEA).

"The Mission has reviewed its overall strategy and introduced a new mechanism to ensure greater opportunity to report SEA, and a comprehensive network of response and assistance for victims," he told the Council. "Under my leadership, MONUSCO will take all possible steps to prevent SEA, punish those responsible to the maximum extent possible, and address the needs of victims."

UN News Centre


 

 

European Union Parliament, Student Activists Call for Targeted Sanctions on Kabila's Circle on Elections Issue

European Union Parliament, Student Activists Call for Targeted Sanctions on Kabila's Circle on Elections Issue

24/03/2016

A resolution passed on March 10 in the European Union Parliament and a letter addressed to U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry from 25 student leaders in the U.S. have called for increased policy action on President Joseph Kabila of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) to hold national elections freely, fairly, and on time. The two public notices particularly call on the U.S. and E.U. to place targeted sanctions on Kabila’s inner circle. These statements have come at a time when democracy activists are increasingly being jailed in Congo, for example the arrest of 18 LUCHA activists following a peaceful demonstration on March 15. 
 
On Thursday, March 10, the European Parliament adopted a resolution expressing concern about the deteriorating security and human rights situation in the DRC. The resolution underscores the importance of an impartial Congolese Independent Election Commission (known by its French acronym, CENI) and offers the support of the institutions of both the European Union and its member-states to ensure “transparent, credible and inclusive elections” in a timely manner in the DRC.

The EU resolution condemns the incumbent Congolese government’s arbitrary and forceful crackdown on peaceful activists, civil society groups, and political opposition, and calls for the immediate release of political prisoners in the DRC. The European Parliament also hailed the upcoming presidential and legislative elections as an opportunity for democratic transition of power, and offers its resources in efforts to end “the persistence and consolidation of impunity in the DRC,” especially in relation to President Kabila’s efforts to extend his stay in power.

Accordingly, the European Parliament “considers the fight against impunity to be a prerequisite for re-establishing peace in the DRC; asks for a full, thorough and transparent investigation to be launched by the DRC Government … into the human rights violations that took place during the election-related protests.”

As part of the EU and its member-states potential arsenal of tools to put pressure on the ruling regime, the resolution “calls for the EU to consider imposing targeted sanctions on those responsible for the violent crackdown in the DRC, including travel bans and asset freezes, so as to help prevent further violence.”

On Monday, March 14, a group of 25 student leaders from the Conflict-Free Campus Initiative, Jewish World Watch, and STAND signed a letter to Secretary of State John Kerry, echoing the sentiment of the EU resolution. In the letter, the student activists asked Secretary Kerry to mobilize the power of U.S. leadership to protect civil society actors in the DRC by employing targeted sanctions, supporting independent investigations into human rights violations and high-level corruption by government officials, and calling for Kabila to hand over power peacefully.

Further calls for action like those above could encourage the EU, EU member-states, and the US government to prioritize the issue of impunity in the DRC and put pressure on the Congolese government to move in the direction of peaceful democratic transition.

By Enough Project intern Sophie Haggerty

Read the full EU resolution here.
Read the full Student Letter here.

South Africa, the AU, and the Tensions Around the Role of the ICC in Africa

South Africa, the AU, and the Tensions Around the Role of the ICC in Africa

23/03/2016

The International Criminal Court building looms over

The Hague, Netherlands



 

The tensions between the African Union (AU) and the International Criminal Court (ICC) are not new. When the ICC indicted Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir in 2009 for crimes against humanity, war crimes, and genocide committed in Darfur, the AU raised concerns about the jurisdiction of the court to do so. In 2016, he has yet to be arrested. When the court issued a warrant for the arrest of the now-deceased President Muammar Gadaffi of Libya in 2011, the AU again rejected the right of the ICC to indict a sitting head of state. In the same year, President Uhuru Kenyatta of Kenya was ordered to appear before the court on five counts of crimes against humanity with regard to the election violence in Kenya. The war crimes trial of former President Laurent Gbagbo of Côte d’Ivoire began in December 2015, rekindling criticisms of the international justice system from across Africa.

 

At a heads of state meeting in Addis Ababa from January 21-31, 2016, the President of Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe, led a charge for African countries to withdraw from the ICC en masse, alleging it is an anti-African court.

This call, initiated by Kenya, was probably a result of the case against Deputy President William Ruto of Kenya, as well as a response to the start of the Gbagbo trial and the near-arrest of Bashir in South Africa in June 2015, when he attended the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) leadership summit.

Bashir in South Africa

The South African incident was particularly controversial, as Bashir was allowed to leave the country despite a court order to remain in South Africa. South Africa has ratified the Rome Statute and is a member of the Court. In addition, the Rome Statute has been domesticated in South African law through an act promulgated in Parliament, the Implementation of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court Act No. 27, 2002. This means that the obligations under the statute are now part of South African law and the country is subject to the court’s jurisdiction. This legislation allows local courts and the police service to co-operate with the ICC in apprehending suspects indicted by the ICC and to ensure that South Africa fulfills its domestic treaty obligations to investigate individuals.

The High Court in Pretoria thus had a binding obligation to issue a warrant for the arrest of al-Bashir. In addition, the 1998 Rome Statute (the founding statue of the ICC) provides that even if an individual is not a citizen of a member state of the ICC and/or the atrocities did not occur within the geographical confines of the state, it is still possible for the ICC to expect the state to execute the warrant of arrest, such as in the case of Bashir in South Africa. The ICC has in fact requested the government to explain why he was allowed to leave the country (the government’s response accused the ICC of “act[ing] against the letter and spirit of the Rome Statute“). The government’s response can be found at . This situation reflects the deep ambivalence many African governments feel towards the court and its actions against African heads of state.

Withdrawing from the ICC?

Based on the call for withdrawal of African countries from the Court, it is important to understand the role and jurisdiction of the ICC. Article 5 of the 1998 Rome Statute provides that the jurisdiction of the Court shall be limited to the most serious crimes of concern to the international community as a whole. The Court has jurisdiction in accordance with this statute with respect to the crime of genocide; crimes against humanity; war crimes; and the crime of aggression.

The pressing issue is whether African countries should withdraw because of the perceived anti-African bias of the ICC. The following facts can assist in thinking through the answer to this question:

1. Since 2012, Fatou Bensouda, a Gambian woman, has been the Chief Prosecutor, having replaced controversial Argentinian lawyer Luis Moreno-Ocampo.
2. Of the 18 full time judges, 4 are from Africa: Joyce Aluoch (Kenya), Chile Eboe-Osuji (Nigeria), Antoine Mindu (DRC), and Sanji Monageng (Botswana).
3. To date, it is true that more cases have been focused on Africa. But this does not necessarily imply that the ICC is targeting Africa. Three of the African situations currently under investigation were self-referred, and two more were referred by the UN Security Council. Of these, the DRC, Benin, and Tanzania voted in favor of the UN Security Council’s referral of the Darfur situation to the ICC; and South Africa, Gabon, and Nigeria voted in favor of the UN Security Council’s referral of the Libya situation to the ICC. Similarly, Côte d’Ivoire accepted the jurisdiction of the ICC and undertook to cooperate with the ICC. Likewise, Kenya’s President Kibaki and Prime Minister Odinga pledged support to the prosecutor’s independent decision to open an investigation into crimes in Kenya. Most recently, Mali referred the crimes occurring on its own territory to the court, a decision that was supported by ECOWAS.
4. Based on this criticism, the Court is also focusing its energies elsewhere, investigating the situation in Georgia and considering Palestine. This is slow progress, but it indicates a willingness to acknowledge the impressions created if all the cases heard by the court relate to conflict in Africa.
5. Based on its origins in the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), the purpose of the court is to ensure that justice is served and that the rights of the vulnerable are protected. It thus exists to check state power and to hold individuals accountable for atrocities.
6. Despite concerns arising since 2009, the DRC has partially domesticated the Rome Statute. On 2 January 2016, President Kabila officially promulgated a series of legislative bills, known collectively as la loi de mise en œuvre du Statut de Rome, which brings key aspects of Congolese criminal law into line with international standards. Thus, while concerns have been expressed through the AU, some individual states see the situation differently.
7. The oft-raised fact that the United States and China are not members of the ICC should not preclude other states from ‘doing the right thing,’ so to speak.
8. South Africa was one of the founding members of the ICC, and former President Nelson Mandela articulated his government’s support for the court in an opening address at the 2nd Conference of African National Institutions for the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights, Durban, 1 July 1998 as follows:
   “We have sought to ensure that the ICC is guaranteed independence and bestowed with adequate powers. Our own continent has suffered enough horrors emanating from the inhumanity of human beings towards human beings. Who knows, many of these might not have occurred, or at least been minimised, had there been an effectively functioning International Criminal Court.”

All of this is to say, the situation is more complicated than the court’s detractors allow. The ICC may very well be flawed, but so are global governance institutions such as the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, the World Trade Organization, and the UN Security Council. There is a push to transform these organizations in order to ensure better and more inclusive governance by multilateral bodies such as BRICS. Thus, rather than simply withdrawing from the ICC – which in South Africa’s case would mean repealing an Act of Parliament – it would surely be better to push for the reform of the Court, including reforms of its membership and composition, to enable it to conduct its work impartially. Another step in the right direction would be for Africa to be given a permanent seat in the UN Security Council so as to be directly involved in peace and security issues on the continent. Of the “Big Five” (United States, China, Russia, France, and the United Kingdom), only two, the UK and France, are currently members of the ICC.

There is currently no alternate court on the African continent and until there is, the ICC will continue to be necessary. In the event that all 35 of its African members withdraw, the Court would collapse, which would be a great blow to the future of international criminal justice. This outcome is, however, unlikely, as the AU cannot speak for the national interests of any member state based on principles of sovereignty in international law.

Professor Narnia Bohler-Muller
Africa Up Close


Congolese is highest-ranking politician set for Hague court verdict

Congolese is highest-ranking politician set for Hague court verdict

20/03/2016

Jean-Pierre Mbemba

AMSTERDAM, March 20 (Reuters) - A former Congolese vice-president becomes the most senior political leader ever to face judgment before the International Criminal Court on Monday, when judges rule on whether he committed war crimes in the Central African Republic (CAR).

Jean-Pierre Bemba, a wealthy businessman whose Movement for the Liberation of Congo (MLC) militia and political party vied for dominance in the Democratic Republic of Congo in the early 2000s, is charged with ordering rape and murder.

If acquitted, Bemba, an old rival of Congolese president Joseph Kabila, could return to political life in the war-torn country which has for decades been ravaged by militias fighting over its mineral wealth.

The charges - two of crimes against humanity and three of war crimes - stem from his militia's intervention on the side of CAR's then-president Ange-Felix Patasse in the neighbouring country's civil war. Bemba denies the charges.

In the court's prison, in The Hague's seaside suburb of Scheveningen, he rubs shoulders with suspects including former Ivorian president Laurent Gbagbo and fellow Congolese Germain Katanga, who is appealing his war crimes conviction.

The ICC's prosecutors say Bemba knew, or should have known that his MLC soldiers were committing crimes. During the five-year trial, 40 witnesses testified. One described being raped by two MLC soldiers. She was later diagnosed with HIV/AIDS.

Bemba's lawyers say he had no control over the MLC's campaign in CAR, during which they claim its soldiers were fully under Patasse's command.

His arrest in 2008 came as a surprise both to Bemba and his supporters and opponents at home. He had been living in semi-exile in Europe for several years when prosecutors sprung a trap by issuing an arrest warrant during a visit to Belgium, Congo's former colonial master.

Like most fellow inmates in the comfortable detention centre, he has devoted the years of his trial to hobbies, entertaining his lawyers with impromptu piano renditions of Abba's hit 'Waterloo', in a nod to the town near Brussels where he was arrested.

The trial began in 2010 but was delayed when, three years in, prosecutors claimed to have uncovered evidence of a conspiracy by Bemba and his lawyer to fabricate exonerating evidence. Five people, including Bemba, were charged in the resulting witness tampering case, which continues. 

By Thomas Escritt

Reuters

Energy in Rwanda What lies beneath

Energy in Rwanda What lies beneath

15/03/2016

Exploiting a hidden menace

THE breathtaking beauty of the Lake Kivu region, resting between the volcanoes and steep hills of the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda, is exceeded only by its mercurial temperament. A clear sunny day can turn to a tropical downpour in minutes, before the sun beats down again. The lake’s still waters also hide another face: dissolved within are billions of cubic meters of flammable methane and more still of carbon dioxide, the result of volcanic gases seeping in.

Two other lakes, in Cameroon, are filled with deadly carbon dioxide. One of them, Lake Nyos, belched out a huge bubble of it in 1986, asphyxiating about 1,700 people. But Lake Kivu is the only lake anywhere also to contain methane. The mix of gases, held tight by pressure like bubbles in a bottle of fizzy drink, presents both a source of power and a danger to hundreds of thousands of people living around the lake. If it were to froth over, as scientists think it has in the distant past, it could generate huge explosions and smother towns and villages in dense clouds of carbon dioxide.

Now several firms are working to harness the energy and mitigate the dangers by gingerly extracting the methane from the lake. Among them is Contour Global, an American firm with power projects across Africa. In December it started producing power from its KivuWatt project. Below a huge barge is a pipe that sucks up water, from which it extracts and purifies the methane before pumping the less-fizzy water back down.

In time the project will be expanded to produce about 100 megawatts of energy. That is more than half of Rwanda’s current, inadequate, generating capacity. Other firms are racing to catch up. Symbion Power, another American company, recently signed an agreement with the Rwandan government to build a 50MW power plant that will also run off methane tapped from the lake’s waters.

The technology being used to tap the lake’s gas is cutting-edge; but this generation of wildcatters is not the first to see power beneath its placid waters. In 1963 an intrepid businessman sent down a small pipe that he used to power a brewery to produce Primus, a light lager with bubbles altogether more palatable than those used to make it.

Source:http://www.economist.com

Two rangers killed in Congo park for mountain gorillas

Two rangers killed in Congo park for mountain gorillas

Virunga National Park home to half mountain gorillas in the world

Mountain Gorillas in Virunga National Park in 

the in the eastern Democratic Republic

 of the Congo

Militia groups in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo have killed two park rangers in one of the world’s last sanctuaries for the endangered mountain gorilla, the park said on Monday.

A third ranger is missing after the attacks on Saturday in Virunga National Park, Africa’s oldest national park and a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Virunga is home to roughly half the world’s remaining 900 mountain gorillas and was the subject of an Oscar-nominated documentary film in 2014.

The park said in a statement four ranger posts on the shores of Lake Edward were attacked by more than 120 rebels belonging to what appears to be a new coalition of militia groups.

Dozens of armed groups operate in and around the 7,800 sq/km park, which abuts Congo’s borders with Rwanda and Uganda.

Two rangers were captured by the rebels and killed and a search is ongoing for the missing ranger, the statement said. It said rangers and Congolese soldiers had reclaimed the overrun positions, killing one rebel and capturing another.

“These rangers were killed in situations that may amount to war crimes in any other conflict,” park director Emmanuel de Merode said in the statement.

More than 150 Virunga rangers have been killed over the last decade, de Merode added, many battling poachers who target the park’s gorillas, elephants and other rare animals.

The rangers’ presence in the park is resented by many of the more than four million people who live near it, but are prevented from cultivating its rich soil.

The Rwandan genocide next door and collapse of Congo’s government in the mid-1990s precipitated years of war in the east that killed millions, mostly from hunger and disease. Armed groups continue to terrorise local populations as they compete over gold, timber and other resources.

International donors are investing over $150 million in and around the park to build hydroplants and tourist infrastructure that they hope can bring sustainable development to the area.

But security has deteriorated in recent months with a spate of kidnappings and inter-ethnic fighting that has led humanitarian organisations to limit their movements.

– Reuters

Beaten and discarded, Congo street children are strangers to mining boom

Beaten and discarded, Congo street children are strangers to mining boom

14/03/2015

KINSHASA, March 13 (Reuters) - Kevin Lusongo has been on the streets since he was 11. He sleeps on a piece of cardboard in an unlit parking lot in a poor neighbourhood of Kinshasa, behind trucks he hopes can shield him from view.

Some nights he's unlucky. Recently police came looking for a stolen handbag and beat him up when they didn't find it, said the boy, who's now 14.

Then there are the older children.

"Often when you sleep, the others come and burn your feet with (flaming) plastic bags," he said. "The oldest will see you and take your money. If you complain, they beat you severely."

Kevin has the gaunt frame of a boy unused to nutritious meals since he was turned out by his family. He works odd jobs, begs and picks through trash to survive.

He is one of 25,000 street children in Democratic Republic of Congo's capital, a number that has nearly doubled in a decade, according to 2014 figures from the U.N. children's agency, with thousands more in the country's other cities.

Congo is Africa's top producer of copper and a mining boom has fuelled annual economic growth of 8 percent for five years, one of the highest rates in the world, according to the International Monetary Fund.

But like many commodity-dependent African countries such as Angola and Nigeria, it has struggled to translate export-driven growth into broader social gains. It is still suffering the after-effects of a civil war in the east that ended in 2003 but left disease, displacement and inter-community violence in its wake.

Kinshasa to the west is groaning under one of the world's fastest-growing urban populations. Outside the well-heeled city centre, there is little sign of prosperity, with most of its 11 million people crammed into rundown neighbourhoods where rubbish is piled in alleyways.

None are more vulnerable than the street children, who are known as "shegues".

Denis Mabwa, who works for REEJER, a coalition of groups assisting street children, said charities like his find homes for about 3,000 children each year, while around 6,000 new children move in the opposite direction.

"There has been a reconstruction of large infrastructure. There is a stabilisation of the currency," said Jean-Pierre Godding, director of the Ndako Ya Biso centre that works to reunite street children with their families.

"But in the big working-class neighbourhoods, no investment has yet been made to improve the infrastructure," said Godding, citing routine flooding and frequent power blackouts. "The popular neighbourhoods have really been neglected."

OVERCROWDING

The statistics on poverty paint a confusing picture.

The government says economic growth has helped the whole of society but that it wants more rapid progress. At a news conference in January, Prime Minister Augustin Matata Ponyo said 50,000 jobs were created in 2015 and poverty was declining.

The percentage of the population living below the national poverty line has dropped to 63 percent from over 70 percent since a civil war ended in 2003 and more children are completing primary school, the government says.

But the IMF says the annual rate of poverty reduction has hardly budged since the 1990s, when Congo - then called Zaire - was registering negative economic growth.

Among so-called world megacities of 10 million or more people, Kinshasa is expected to record the second-highest annual growth rate between 2014 and 2030 at 3.67 percent, according to a U.N. report, and residents say lack of government social provision is pushing many families towards financial ruin.

Ruth Tumba-Maseu, 15, said she fled her uncle's house in 2014 after he beat her. She slept on the streets before being directed by a friend to a centre for girls affiliated with Ndako Ya Biso where she is now able to live full-time.

She said girls sleeping rough were often beaten and sexually abused. "Life in the street isn't good for girls. The boys think that you are there for the taking."

According to Unicef, girls comprised 26 percent of the population of street children in 2006 but now account for about 44 percent.

"The conditions are deteriorating," said REEJER's Mabwa. "You see terrible overcrowding. The children really can't stay (at home)."

Child rights advocates fear street children could be used as pawns in street protests and get caught up in violence ahead of a presidential election due in November to choose a successor to President Joseph Kabila.

Groups that help street children say they get no consistent government support.

The minister of gender, family and children, Lucie Kipele, told Reuters the government was very concerned by the issue of street children and was creating a committee to study it. 

However, she said she was not familiar with numbers showing the problem worsening and that funding of children's groups was handled by multiple ministries.

EDUCATION

The war in eastern Congo that ended in 2003 killed millions of people, and since then armed groups have fought over mineral supplies. There was almost no fighting in Kinshasa, but many people fled west to the capital.

Mobutu Sese Seko ruled the country for decades until 1997 and provided only minimal social services to the population. Many citizens now view the government with suspicion and doubt its ability to improve their lives.

Norbert Toe, head of an IMF mission to Congo, said the mining boom had contributed little to overall welfare.

"Capital comes in, (the companies) exploit the natural resource, take it out as exports, and the profits get repatriated," he said on the IMF website.

Relatively low taxes on the mining sector compared with countries such as Zambia constrain Congo's annual spending to less than $5 billion, limiting the government's ability to spend on social sectors, he said.

Some international donors including Britain and the United States have also questioned the government's spending priorities.

In unusually pointed remarks in Dec. 2015, British ambassador Graham Zebedee criticised the government for spending as much on the presidency, parliament and the prime minister's office budgets as on primary, secondary and technical education.

The government allocated just 3.4 percent of its 2015 budget to the health sector, roughly the same amount it spent on parliament, according to the donors.

In response to written questions, Congo's Budget Minister Michel Bongongo said that close to 30 percent of the government's spending in 2014 went toward "improving the living conditions of the population", including on health, education, electricity, drinking water and communal transport.

He said that government action, including urban infrastructure development, has benefited working-class neighbourhoods outside city centres. "Whether its infrastructure for schools or hospitals that are rehabilitated or constructed, or even roads, many are located in outlying areas," he said.

Back on the streets, Kevin told how he started living rough more than three years ago when he was kicked out of his uncle's house, where his mother was living, for lack of space.

For the past year he has spent his days at Ndako Ya Biso, which is funded by donors - where he receives schooling, food and medical care - before returning to the street at night.

He still dreams of being reunited with his mother.

"They'll be talking to my mother," he says, describing the imaginary scene at the centre. "I won't know that they are speaking about it but then they'll take me to the house." (Editing by Matthew Mpoke Bigg and Pravin Char)

By Aaron Ross

DRC slip-slides into electoral delays

DRC slip-slides into electoral delays

14 March 2016

In mid January, the Independent National Electoral Commission (CENI) of the Democratic Republic of the Congo announced that it would need 18 months to update the voters’ roll. This was followed by an announcement from the minister of interior that a new electoral law, and several others related to the elections, would first have to be tabled during Parliament’s next session, starting in March.

These two timelines are the most concrete indicators of what many have long suspected: that the Congolese government does not intend to stick to constitutional deadlines which mandate that the presidential election take place in November this year, and that it is now firmly pursuing its strategy of ‘glissement’ (French for ‘sliding’) – an indefinite delay of elections.

The opposition and civil society have cried foul, but the reality is now slowly setting in that the November deadline will come and go, and that presidential elections will not take place. By design or by default, the CENI has made very little progress on even the most basic preparations for any of the elections – local, provincial and presidential – which it intends to hold during this election cycle.

It’s one thing to accept a slight delay, recognising that elections in the DRC are costly and complicated. It is quite another to leave unchallenged the lengthy and open-ended process that the CENI and the Congolese government have now set in motion.

The reality is now slowly setting in that the DRC’s November elections deadline will come and go

In Kinshasa the talk is now of a ‘technical delay’, a term that allows the ruling party and the presidency to be distanced from the process and counter the impression that the hold-up is politically motivated. Corneille Nangaa, the president of the CENI, has been on every local TV and radio station explaining the technical process.

When it comes to a constitutional crisis prompted by a delayed presidential poll, the government has a ready-made answer: Article 70 of the Constitution, which states that the president remains in office until he is replaced by another elected president. But few are buying it; and nor should they.

By various accounts, the CENI had already prepared a call for tenders for the voter registration process in October 2015, and attributed it to a Belgian company. The CENI now declared that it had nothing to do with that tender process, saying that it is void and has launched a new one. There is also the fact that in the 2006 and the 2011 election cycles, the CENI was able to accomplish this same process in six to eight months. What underpins this extended period this time around if not the lack of political will to move forward as quickly as possible?

Between the voter registration delay and the fact that the president has yet to declare that he will not run for a third term, uncertainty about the country’s political future is running high.

The International community and key powers like the United Kingdom, Belgium, Germany and the United States have been vocal about the need to respect the constitution, as have the United Nations (UN), the African Union (AU) and the European Union. But so far no one has commented specifically on the 18-month voter registration process. This creates the risk that the government will feel it has found an acceptable loophole.

President Kabila has yet to declare that he will not run for a third term

One way to engage with this issue would be for the international community to assist in accelerating the registration process, by offering additional resources or a provider who can complete the work as close as possible to the November election deadline.

This would also allow for more transparency, and could stave off the further delays that one might expect were the CENI to go it alone.

Another contentious issue in the convoluted election landscape is dialogue. Last year, Kabila announced that he was convening a political dialogue to discuss the electoral calendar. The political opposition and civil society rejected this initiative, like its many predecessors, because it was perceived as yet another stage-managed event.

Opposition parties have also rejected it on the grounds that it legitimises the government’s strategy of orchestrating a delay in the election calendar. Both of those arguments are legitimate, but with statements like the one made recently by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon and others, it is clear that the international community wants some sort of dialogue between political parties to reach consensus on the way forward.

After UN Special Envoy to the Great Lakes, Said Djinnit’s inconclusive visit to Kinshasa in November 2015 to explore his possible role as mediator, the task now seems to have fallen to the AU’s Edem Kodjo, who was put in charge of leading the mediation in January.

The UN had offered to assist, and the fact that nothing came of Djinnit’s visit could indicate that Kabila was not willing to accept the UN’s requirement that the process be independent.

Dialogue is another contentious issue in the convoluted DRC election landscape

Although a number of opposition parties refused to engage with him, Kodjo’s first visit to the DRC was a mitigated success. Rightly or wrongly, there is a perception that he is simply picking up the initiative for a national dialogue where the Congolese government left off, rather than starting afresh and making his own assessment of what is necessary.

If the AU wants Kodjo to play the role of a neutral facilitator in the Congolese political situation, he should publically make it clear that he is not associated with the government’s initiative and that he will be leading a new, independent process between political parties; not between the president and political parties.

If he does not make a clean break, it will be very difficult for the process to have the credibility and buy-in that it needs to make a difference. On the other hand, if Kodjo manages to do this, the political opposition should rise to the occasion and use the opportunity to engage in a constructive dialogue to address its key concerns.

Of course, this may not be what the Congolese government wants. But only if Kodjo makes it clear that the dialogue is independent will we be able to gauge whether the ruling party and the president really are committed to finding a compromise solution to the election impasse. What the country needs is clarity on when elections will be held, and what the president intends to do – not more empty justifications and contorted interpretations of the Congolese constitution.

The consequences of a prolonged period of uncertainty will likely lead to greater instability. There are already splits in the ruling coalition over the issue of the election and the absence of a successor, and there is growing participation in protest action. How the military and police would react if there are sustained protests in key urban areas is unclear. The signs that things could go badly are all there. If Kabila does not make the right choice, the Congolese population will be looking to the AU, the UN and key countries to make the difference.

Stephanie Wolters,
ISS Africa