DRC

KINSHASA, Jan 8 (NNN-AGENCIES) — More than 6,000 people died since the start of 2019 as a result of the “world’s worst measles epidemic” raging across the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

A lack of funding, according to the WHO, remains a major obstacle in the control of the epidemic. Only 27.6 million U.S. dollars have been raised, but around 310,000 suspected cases of measles have been reported since the outbreak of the disease, said the statement.

KINSHASA, Dec 24 (NNN-AGENCIES) — A former DR Congo prime minister and opposition leader called for the government to wage war on neighbouring Rwanda as a way to end militia violence.

The Democratic Republic of Congo was at the heart of two bitter regional wars between 1997-2003 involving its neighbours Rwanda and Uganda.

Kinshasa accused Rwanda and Uganda of trying to destabilise the DR Congo while its neighbours said militias opposed to their governments had used DR Congo as a rear base for attacks.

UNITED NATIONS, Dec 23 (NNN-Xinhua) — With more than five million displaced people, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is the African country most affected by internal displacement, according to the UN.

The displacement is mainly due to violence, and the country is home to some 517,000 refugees from neighboring countries, UN secretary-general’s spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.

BENI (DR Congo), Dec 7 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Suspected militia fighters have decapitated 16 people in a new village massacre near Beni in northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo, civil society sources said Friday.

Three more civilians were wounded in Beni town by an explosive device on Thursday night, an official source said, in a new tactic in a region beset by militia violence for decades.

Goma (DR Congo), Nov 25, AFP/GANASHAKTI: At least 29 people were killed when a small plane crashed after takeoff  into a densely populated area of the city of Goma in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.

A survivor among the 19 people -- 17 passengers and two crew members -- who were aboard the plane was taken to hospital along with 16 others injured on the ground, the North Kivu regional government said.

"At this stage, 29 bodies have been found in the rubble," the statement said.

Mbanza-Ngungu (DR Congo), Oct 20 (AFP) At least 30 people were killed when a packed bus came off the road and burst into flames overnight near Kinshasa, the DR Congo capital, a local official said Sunday.

"The current toll is 30 dead. Eighteen others have third-degree burns," Red Cross spokesman David Nsiala told AFP.

"We are continuing the work of identifying the bodies," added Nsiala, who runs the Red Cross in Mbanza-Ngungu territory southwest of Kinshasa.

KINSHASA, Oct 12 (NNN-UNICEF) — UNICEF is vaccinating thousands more children against measles and rushing life-saving medicines to health centers across the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), as deaths from the world’s largest measles outbreak top 4,000.

Since January, 203,179 cases of measles have been reported in all 26 provinces of the country, and 4,096 have died. Children under the age of five represent 74 per cent of infections and nearly 90 per cent of deaths.

BRAZZAVILLE, Oct 5 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The Republic of Congo launched a campaign to distribute anti-malaria bed nets to more than 90 percent of the nation’s households.

More than three million insecticide-treated nets will be distributed over the five-day operation, initiated by Prime Minister Clement Mouamba in the capital Brazzaville.

The cost of the operation, put at 12 million euros ($13.39 million), is being met by the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.

KINSHASA, Sept 27 (NNN-AGENCIES) — More than 800,000 children are to be targeted for vaccination in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), after a measles outbreak killed more than 3,500 people this year.

The World Health Organization (WHO) and the Congolese government aim to carry out the emergency programme across the country in slightly more than a week.

The WHO says the epidemic is the world’s largest and fastest-moving.

It has killed more Congolese people this year than Ebola.

KINSHASA, Congo, Aug 26 (NNN-BERNAMA-ANADOLU) — The Democratic Republic of Congo announced a new coalition government on Monday, seven months after President Felix Tshisekedi was inaugurated as the country’s head of state.

“This is a cohabitation experience that is the first in our country and change is starting now,” said Prime Minister Sylvester Ilunga Ilunkamba, who was appointed on May 20.

The new government has brought in new blood.

“76.9% of ministers have never been members of the government,” said Ilunkamba.