Man, this place has been hell on Earth for the last 15 years. It makes Afghanistan and Somalia look stable.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/may/31/thousands-flee-extreme-violence-congo
QuoteVillagers and townspeople in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo are facing "extreme violence" with atrocities including mass executions, abductions, mutilations and rapes being committed almost daily, according to aid workers in Goma, the capital of North Kivu province.
Fighting between the government army, the FARDC, and a group of mutineers led by a fugitive UN war crimes indictee, Bosco Ntaganda, has escalated since April. Armed militias including the notorious FDLR, a Rwandan rebel group based in Congo, have joined the fray in a multi-fronted battle for territory, money and power. But the violence has received relatively little international attention so far.
"The crisis in Congo is the worst it has been for years. The activity of armed groups has exploded, with militias making the most of the chaos to prey on the local population," Samuel Dixon, Oxfam's policy adviser in Goma, said on Wednesday. "Large areas of [North and South] Kivu are under the control of different armed groups – some villages are being terrorised from all sides, with up to five groups battling for power.
"Local people are bearing the brunt of extreme violence, facing the risk of massacre, rape, retaliation, abduction, mutilation, forced labour or extortion ... In less than two months, more than 100,000 people in North Kivu have been forced to flee," Dixon said.
Expressing alarm at the deteriorating situation, the UN refugee agency said the violence had sent tens of thousands of refugees spilling over the border into Rwanda and Uganda, while many more people were internally displaced.
Melissa Fleming, spokeswoman for the UNHCR, said UN agencies and the Red Cross would soon begin to distribute relief supplies. "Some of the displaced report cases of extortion, forced labour, forced recruitment of minors and beatings by armed men," Fleming said.
Aid workers said heightened instability was making it difficult to establish the true extent of the violence and to get supplies to those most in need, who had often taken refuge in remote, inaccessible areas.
"The mutiny in North Kivu is part of a broader picture of insecurity caused by multiple armed groups and by elements of the Congolese forces. Since the FARDC has been fighting the mutiny, other armed groups active in eastern Congo have opportunistically moved into areas left vacant by the army," an internal NGO field report seen by the Guardian stated.
"In South Kivu in early May 2012, 30 people were killed in Lumenje zone by the FDLR ... During the night of 13 May, at least another 40 civilians lost their lives and 35 were injured following a brutal FDLR attack on Kamananga. This incident took place only 2kms from a Monusco base [Monusco is the name of the UN's 20,000-strong stabilisation force in Congo]."
The report went on: "A letter left by the FDLR at the scene warned of a series of revenge attacks if the opposing group, the Raia [militia], did not stop attacking them. In the last two massacres the FDLR mutilated the dead to discourage further actions against them ...
"In Mambas territory, a mai mai [militia] group reportedly raped over 70 women in the second week of May and armed clashes around Itembo allegedly led to the death of 17 civilians."
Overall, the total number of internally displaced people in Congo is believed to be at its highest level in three years: up from 1.7 million to 2 million.
The latest upheavals follow warnings, first reported in the Guardian on 16 March, that the army's offensive against the FDLR, launched in February, could destabilise the Kivus and have disastrous consequences. Controversially, the UN supported the offensive, arguing it was the best way to end chronic instability in the region.
The army's plan went awry last month after President Joseph Kabila of Congo called for the arrest of Bosco Ntaganda, an ex-rebel general whose forces were supposedly integrated into the FARDC in 2009.
Ntaganda is wanted by the international criminal court for alleged war crimes, including the recruitment of child soldiers, but had appeared to be enjoying to official protection. His response to Kabila's call for his arrest was to lead a mutiny of former officers and hundreds of their men, who have formed a new rebel group called M23.
"Civilian safety has to be the number one priority for the UN and the government army," Dixon said. "Military action against rebels must not put local people at further risk. It is unacceptable that such widespread violence in Congo goes unstopped and under-reported. More must be done to tackle the political and underlying drivers of the conflict."
No surprise there.
We needs boots on the ground.
Has it ever ascended out of blood stained anarchy?
Quote from: Josephus on May 31, 2012, 07:10:10 AM
Has it ever ascended out of blood stained anarchy?
Another fucked up Timmay headline.
Quotethe UN supported the offensive, arguing it was the best way to end chronic instability in the region
UN :frusty:
Quote from: CountDeMoney on May 31, 2012, 07:12:40 AM
Quote from: Josephus on May 31, 2012, 07:10:10 AM
Has it ever ascended out of blood stained anarchy?
Another fucked up Timmay headline.
Misleading too - it should have been "Parts of Congo in Blood-Stained Anarchy - Most Remains a Dismal Kleptocratic Shithole."
Quote from: 11B4V on May 31, 2012, 09:40:42 AM
Quotethe UN supported the offensive, arguing it was the best way to end chronic instability in the region
UN :frusty:
Actually that sounds like one of the more sensible statements to come from the UN.
Quote from: derspiess on May 31, 2012, 10:34:21 AM
Quote from: 11B4V on May 31, 2012, 09:40:42 AM
Quotethe UN supported the offensive, arguing it was the best way to end chronic instability in the region
UN :frusty:
Actually that sounds like one of the more sensible statements to come from the UN.
If memory serves, they have an awesome and stellar track record of meddling in the Congo... <_<
Quote from: jimmy olsen on May 31, 2012, 03:37:41 AM
Man, this place has been hell on Earth for the last 15 years. It makes Afghanistan and Somalia look stable.
Are you drunk. Last 15 years..... :lmfao: This shit goes back all the way to Patrice Lumumba. Maybe even further....Belgium, isnt that right.
Maybe Kofi Annan can go down in plane over the Congo.
Quote from: Razgovory on May 31, 2012, 10:55:03 AM
Maybe Kofi Annan can go down in plane over the Congo.
Repeat of history.
Quote from: Razgovory on May 31, 2012, 10:55:03 AM
Maybe Kofi Annan can go down in plane over the Congo.
Well he does have a Swedish wife. :perv:
Quote from: 11B4V on May 31, 2012, 10:53:40 AM
Quote from: jimmy olsen on May 31, 2012, 03:37:41 AM
Man, this place has been hell on Earth for the last 15 years. It makes Afghanistan and Somalia look stable.
Are you drunk. Last 15 years..... :lmfao: This shit goes back all the way to Patrice Lumumba.
Further then that. It's was pretty rough under the Belgians. And before that, the Imbangalas were running around. Those guys were psychopaths.
Quote from: Razgovory on May 31, 2012, 10:59:50 AM
Quote from: 11B4V on May 31, 2012, 10:53:40 AM
Quote from: jimmy olsen on May 31, 2012, 03:37:41 AM
Man, this place has been hell on Earth for the last 15 years. It makes Afghanistan and Somalia look stable.
Are you drunk. Last 15 years..... :lmfao: This shit goes back all the way to Patrice Lumumba.
Further then that. It's was pretty rough under the Belgians. And before that, the Imbangalas were running around. Those guys were psychopaths.
I'll stick with the Waffles as far enough.
Anyone read The Poisonwood Bible? Is it at all accurate about yankee pigdog meddling in the Congo?
Quote from: Gups on May 31, 2012, 11:06:53 AM
Anyone read The Poisonwood Bible? Is it at all accurate about yankee pigdog meddling in the Congo?
Historical Fiction...not interested even if it's good.
Been meaning to get,
Dancing in the Glory of Monsters just havent got around to it.
"Once Again" ?
When Conrad called it the heart of darkness he was referring to already established fact. Pre-Leopold Congo was just as much of a shithole as it is today. It's reverting to type.
The rebels are doing well.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jul/09/congo-rebels-capture-key-towns-conflict
Quote
Congo rebels capture key towns in east as conflict escalates
M23 mutineers advance to within 40km of UN mission HQ and call on Congolese president Joseph Kabila to heed demands
Peter Jones in Bunagana and David Smith in Johannesburg
guardian.co.uk, Monday 9 July 2012 19.29 BST
Rebels in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) have captured a series of key towns, plunging the vast country into its worst conflict for nearly five years and threatening the credibility of the government and UN peacekeepers.
The mutineers, led by a renegade general sought by the international criminal court, have marched unchecked through swaths of the country's east, to just 40km from Goma, the capital of North Kivu province and headquarters of the UN mission.
The resurgence in fighting marks the latest chapter in the central African country's wars seemingly without end that have cost millions of lives. Eastern Congo is rich in minerals, riven by an alphabet-soup of ethnic militia groups and, according to a recent UN report, still poisoned by interference from its tiny neighbour, Rwanda.
The M23 mutineers – named after a peace deal they now criticise – want Congolese president Joseph Kabila to listen to their demands, insisting that they are ready to march on Goma if necessary.
Rebels in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) have captured a series of key towns, plunging the vast country into its worst conflict for nearly five years and threatening the credibility of the government and UN peacekeepers.
The mutineers, led by a renegade general sought by the international criminal court, have marched unchecked through swaths of the country's east, to just 40km from Goma, the capital of North Kivu province and headquarters of the UN mission.
The resurgence in fighting marks the latest chapter in the central African country's wars seemingly without end that have cost millions of lives. Eastern Congo is rich in minerals, riven by an alphabet-soup of ethnic militia groups and, according to a recent UN report, still poisoned by interference from its tiny neighbour, Rwanda.
The M23 mutineers – named after a peace deal they now criticise – want Congolese president Joseph Kabila to listen to their demands, insisting that they are ready to march on Goma if necessary.
(https://languish.org/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fstatic.guim.co.uk%2Fsys-images%2FGuardian%2FPix%2Fmaps_and_graphs%2F2012%2F7%2F9%2F1341849610270%2FDRC-rebel-map-006.jpg&hash=e72cb252e07ff5bd7a5aecf511c9f34d1b951d70)
DRC rebel map The area seized by the M23 rebels
On Friday the rebels seized Bunagana, a key trading town on the border with Uganda, before forcing their way deeper into North Kivu province at the weekend. They occupied several small villages and took control of the town of Rutshuru, a major town, and Rumangabo, about 40km north of Goma.
The M23 leadership are all former fighters of the CNDP (National Congress for the Defence of the People) rebel group that fought a bloody insurrection from 2006 to 2008. Then they were led by Laurent Nkunda and the notorious general Bosco "the Terminator" Ntaganda, who has been indicted for alleged war crimes.
The territory now held by M23 mirrors that controlled by the CNDP before it launched devastating attacks on Goma and other towns in the eastern Kivu provinces. That conflict ended with peace agreements signed on 23 March 2009; M23 insists that Kabila has not adhered to the terms of those accords and demands their full implementation.
"If the Congolese government wants the problem to be solved by war, I'm ready to fight," M23 leader Colonel Sultani Makenga told the Guardian at the M23 base in Bunagana. "If they want peace talks, we shall have talks. If we have to march to Goma, we will do."
The government in faraway Kinshasa does not seem in the mood for peace talks. On 6 July the Congolese defence minister Alexander Tambo issued arrest warrants for Makenga and the M23 spokesman Vianney Kazarama, as well as Ntaganda, accused by the UN Group of Experts on the Congo of being a leader of the movement. Tambo's communique instructed "the defence and security services to urgently relaunch operations to find and arrest them."
The Congolese army's campaign against the rebels has not progressed well, with troops fleeing when they hear of the approach of M23. In Bunagana, some 600 Congolese soldiers, including elite Belgian-trained commandos hurriedly brought in to supposedly secure the town, escaped over the border into Uganda when M23 attacked.
Congolese company commander Petit-Petit Tamata, in the Ugandan border town Kisoro, said: "We're in Uganda because of what happened in Congo; we were on the border and were attacked by the rebels. In military we often call that a strategic withdrawal. Our company faced a superior enemy so we withdrew to protect our capacity and materials."
Civilians in the conflict zone say they are suffering from looting and abductions by both the fleeing army soldiers and the incoming rebels. "The Congolese army looted the population as they fled," said a young man in Kiwanja, 5km from Rutshuru, who wished to remain anonymous. "The army also took people with them, to carry their stuff."
In Rwanguba, on the road between Bunagana and Rutshuru and controlled by the rebels, people told similar stories. "On Friday [6 July] the M23 soldiers looted radios, telephones and money," Jean-Paul Bahati said.
"When the rebels arrive here they will need young guys or fighters, they'll take us young men by force," said the young man in Kiwanja. "Since my birth I've never touched a weapon. But when the rebels come they're going to give me a gun and teach me how to use it even though I don't want to be a fighter."
People in Kiwanja appear have good reason to fear the approaching rebels. In 2008 the CNDP massacred some 150 people in the town, an atrocity allegedly masterminded by Ntaganda.
M23, however, withdrew from Kiwanja and Rutshuru late on Sunday, leaving them in the hands of the local police and UN stabilisation forces. "But if the army returns [to Rutshuru and Kiwanja], we will fight them," said Makenga.
Rapid surrenders and defections by the Congolese army so far will cause anxiety in Kinshasa. The world's biggest UN peacekeeping mission, with nearly 20,000 uniformed personnel, has so far failed to stop the M23 in its tracks.
A young man in Kiwanja, who did not wish to be named, said: "When the population flees like this, all we want is the protection of Monusco (the UN mission). But when we seek protection, Monusco aren't interested in us."
The mission reported that UN helicopter gunships bombarded rebel positions on Sunday. But the fall of Goma would be disastrous for the UN, Kabila and his international backers. Stephanie Wolters, an independent political analyst specialising in the Great Lakes region, said: "I do think they're very capable of taking Goma. If that happens, Kinshasa will have suffered an irreparable blow.
"The big question now is who will negotiate with whom? Kinshasa knows there is no point negotiating with the M23 because who do they speak for? So will Rwanda come to the party? But that would be an admission of guilt on their part. If Rwanda doesn't feel it has to stop, the threat to Kabila is clear."
Where's King Leopold II the Association internationale africaine when they need them. :cry:
I wasn't a massive fan of The Poisonwood Bible as a novel. But the history was interesting, though I don't know how fully accurate it is.
might help if Rwanda was nuked from orbit. Much of the misery of the past decade is on their account
Quote from: Razgovory on May 31, 2012, 10:59:50 AM
Quote from: 11B4V on May 31, 2012, 10:53:40 AM
Quote from: jimmy olsen on May 31, 2012, 03:37:41 AM
Man, this place has been hell on Earth for the last 15 years. It makes Afghanistan and Somalia look stable.
Are you drunk. Last 15 years..... :lmfao: This shit goes back all the way to Patrice Lumumba.
Further then that. It's was pretty rough under the Belgians. And before that, the Imbangalas were running around. Those guys were psychopaths.
Have to give props to Belgians, though. For such a tiny country, they sure proved to be superb genociders.
We must intervene in the Congo.
Quote from: DGuller on July 10, 2012, 11:52:58 AM
Quote from: Razgovory on May 31, 2012, 10:59:50 AM
Quote from: 11B4V on May 31, 2012, 10:53:40 AM
Quote from: jimmy olsen on May 31, 2012, 03:37:41 AM
Man, this place has been hell on Earth for the last 15 years. It makes Afghanistan and Somalia look stable.
Are you drunk. Last 15 years..... :lmfao: This shit goes back all the way to Patrice Lumumba.
Further then that. It's was pretty rough under the Belgians. And before that, the Imbangalas were running around. Those guys were psychopaths.
Have to give props to Belgians, though. For such a tiny country, they sure proved to be superb genociders.
not really as there's still pleny of Congolese around. Seems a failure on that front.
Btw, Belgium is a myth.
Quote from: jimmy olsen on May 31, 2012, 03:37:41 AM
Man, this place has been hell on Earth for the last 15 years. It makes Afghanistan and Somalia look stable.
this is why I question your title: "Once again descends" would suggest it was not anarchy at some point.
It's funny that all those african failed states turn out to be libertarian and anarchist paradises. Wonder why we can't deport them all over there or Somalia.
Quote from: Crazy_Ivan80 on July 11, 2012, 02:50:27 AM
not really as there's still pleny of Congolese around. Seems a failure on that front.
Btw, Belgium is a myth.
The twenty-or-so percent decrease in demographics in Congo under Leopold II wasn't a myth.
Belgium is not a myth, you have a pretty witty King who's keeping it all united, despite your flamingant crybabies whining over it. :nelson:
Quote from: Drakken on July 13, 2012, 08:54:57 AM
Quote from: Crazy_Ivan80 on July 11, 2012, 02:50:27 AM
not really as there's still pleny of Congolese around. Seems a failure on that front.
Btw, Belgium is a myth.
The twenty-or-so percent decrease in demographics in Congo under Leopold II wasn't a myth.
Belgium is not a myth, you have a pretty witty King who's keeping it all united, despite your flamingant crybabies whining over it. :nelson:
:rolleyes: Typical nonsense talk by someone who doesn't know the belgian reality.
Quote from: Crazy_Ivan80 on July 13, 2012, 09:17:48 AM
:rolleyes: Typical nonsense talk by someone who doesn't know the belgian reality.
Drakken is a federalist, meaning he doesn't believe that inside a border, multiple nations can exists. Between in the Borg, only the level of technology differs.
I'm dumping all my old clothes from my previous employer at those Third World drop-off boxes; golf shirts, windbreakers, you name it.
I so want to turn on the news one day, and see an African child soldier with an AK47 and one of my golf shirts. That would be cool.
Quote from: CountDeMoney on July 13, 2012, 11:01:02 AM
I'm dumping all my old clothes from my previous employer at those Third World drop-off boxes; golf shirts, windbreakers, you name it.
I so want to turn on the news one day, and see an African child soldier with an AK47 and one of my golf shirts. That would be cool.
I did that from the one job I was let go from.
Now, 10 years later, I wish I'd kept some of it.
Quote from: CountDeMoney on July 13, 2012, 11:01:02 AM
I'm dumping all my old clothes from my previous employer at those Third World drop-off boxes; golf shirts, windbreakers, you name it.
I so want to turn on the news one day, and see an African child soldier with an AK47 and one of my golf shirts. That would be cool.
When I worked at Bank One we had an employee day at Six Flags in NJ and they gave us these stupid-ass t-shirts we had to wear that had "Bank One-- It's a Great Adventure" embroidered on the back. I threw mine out in the garbage along with old kitty litter & cat shit I had dumped in the same garbage bag. Took the bag out to the garbage collection area for the apartment we lived in & threw it in a garbage can.
Two weeks later when I'm down in the basement doing laundry I notice the maintenance guy wearing that same shirt :huh:
Quote from: Barrister on July 13, 2012, 11:08:34 AM
Quote from: CountDeMoney on July 13, 2012, 11:01:02 AM
I'm dumping all my old clothes from my previous employer at those Third World drop-off boxes; golf shirts, windbreakers, you name it.
I so want to turn on the news one day, and see an African child soldier with an AK47 and one of my golf shirts. That would be cool.
I did that from the one job I was let go from.
Now, 10 years later, I wish I'd kept some of it.
Meh, fuck 'em. Besides, we were on the ass end of an M & A, so it's not like the name exists anymore.
I may keep the raincoat, though. It's a nice fucking raincoat. And the golf pullover. Water repellant.
If I had kept all my corporate clothes from the different places I've worked, I'm pretty sure I could fill a closet. I guess if you include now-outdated Bengals crap I've already done that.
Quote from: derspiess on July 13, 2012, 11:34:03 AM
I guess if you include now-outdated Bengals crap I've already done that.
Old school sports gear is a totally different beast, my friend. Don't ever ditch that stuff.
Quote from: viper37 on July 13, 2012, 10:29:01 AM
Quote from: Crazy_Ivan80 on July 13, 2012, 09:17:48 AM
:rolleyes: Typical nonsense talk by someone who doesn't know the belgian reality.
Drakken is a federalist, meaning he doesn't believe that inside a border, multiple nations can exists. Between in the Borg, only the level of technology differs.
The overall country would still be united though. :huh:
Quote from: CountDeMoney on July 13, 2012, 01:26:37 PM
Quote from: derspiess on July 13, 2012, 11:34:03 AM
I guess if you include now-outdated Bengals crap I've already done that.
Old school sports gear is a totally different beast, my friend. Don't ever ditch that stuff.
The fat guy in Section 202, whose gut is stretching his 1980s Boomer Esiason jersey, agrees with you.
I don't wear the old stuff, but I just can't seem to get rid of it. I have this horrible yet probably expensive leather Bengals jacket from the 90s that I'd not be caught dead in. But for some reason it remains in my possession, in a storage container in my basement.
To no one's surprise things continue to worsen.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/democraticrepublicofcongo/9689774/Rwanda-backed-DRC-rebels-in-streets-of-Goma.html
QuoteRwanda-backed DRC rebels in streets of Goma
Rebels in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo claimed they had captured the key, mineral rich eastern city of Goma, as witnesses described seeing columns of troops advancing unopposed through the streets of Goma.
Scores of heavily armed rebels were walking through the city unchallenged as United Nations peacekeepers watched and small groups of residents greeted them, Reuters reported.
"The town of Goma fell at 11:33 local time, despite the attack helicopters, despite the heavy weapons, the FARDC [Congo army] has let the town fall into our hands," M23 spokesman Colonel Vianney Kazarama said by telephone.
Congolese army commanders denied claims by rebels from the M23 movement that they had seized the city's airport, a vital lifeline for business and aid flights that stands directly opposite the United Nations headquarters.
Loud explosions shook the area around the airport, and there were early reports of looting in Goma, a city of 300,000 close to the border with Rwanda that is also sheltering tens of thousands of refugees who have fled the clashes.
"I had seen some Uruguayan UN troops and tanks on the streets earlier, patrolling with FARDC [Congo national army]," one Goma resident said by telephone early on Tuesday.
"But apart from them the streets are empty, there is no car, no person, no motorcycle taxi. We are very afraid. If the UN won't stop the rebels, there is no-one between them and us."
Commanders from M23, or the March 23 Movement, had said on Monday that they did not intend to enter Goma, the main city in Congo's east and de facto headquarters for its massive aid effort, unless they were fired upon.
But it appears that they disregarded that promise in the early hours of Tuesday.
Now there are fears of street-to-street fighting in the city, where most people live in flimsy shelters or tin-shack houses that will be no protection from stray rounds.
Aid workers fear they will face massive increases in civilians with war wounds, to add to the humanitarian crisis of more than 50,000 people already fleeing violence earlier this week.
There were also reports on Tuesday of fighting to Goma's west, around Mugunga, where most of those tens of thousands of people had sought safety after running from other camps.
It will be impossible for the M23, whose total strength is thought to number no more than 2,500 soldiers, to hold Goma, security analysts have said.
But there were concerns that Rwanda, which has denied international reports that claim it is funding and arming the M23, could enter the fray in an ostensible bid to "protect" is porous border with Congo.
Goma is a effectively contiguous with the Rwandan town of Gisenyi, with the two halves of the population separated only by the poorly-guarded frontier.
On Monday, Rwanda and Congo exchanged claims that each other's forces had launched cross-border mortar attacks into each others territory.
Rwanda's invasion of Congo, with support from Uganda, prompted a decade of conflict that killed as many as five million people, mostly from hunger and disease.
Quote from: Josephus on May 31, 2012, 07:10:10 AM
Has it ever ascended out of blood stained anarchy?
Well, on the occasions that it had blood-stained, iron-fisted authoritarianism.