Congo-Kinshasa

Democratic Republic of Congo : A Forgotten Crisis

Ben Affleck “Gimme Shelter” video launches UNHCR campaign for displaced Congolese:

Renewed violence in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has triggered a humanitarian crisis, forcing more than 250,000 people to flee for their lives. The fighting brings a forgotten tragedy back to the world's attention.

The “Gimme Shelter” film made to support the campaign was directed by American actor-director Ben Affleck and filmed by John Toll. Both are US Academy Award winners. It includes footage shot in DRC’s strife-torn North Kivu province during Affleck's fourth visit to the region in November 2008. The film is set to the classic Rolling Stones song, Gimme Shelter, which the group donated to the campaign.

UNHCR hopes the Gimme Shelter campaign will help raise US$23 million in 2009 to pay for clean water supplies and emergency humanitarian assistance kits for tens of thousands of internally displaced Congolese.

DRC: UN's Ban Ki-moon Visits Displaced Congolese in Kibati Camp

KIBATI, Democratic Republic of the Congo, March 2 (UNHCR) – UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon pledged to help thousands of displaced people during a visit to a camp in the troubled Congolese province of North Kivu.

"You have the right to receive all the assistance [you need]," Ban told displaced people on Sunday at Kibati I camp, which is located some 15 kilometres north of the provincial capital, Goma. "As UN Secretary-General, I will do my best to give you assistance," he added during a meeting organized by UNHCR.

Congo-Kinshasa: North Kivu Governor Extols Joint Military Operation

By James Karuhanga

Goma — The Governor of North Kivu Province, Monday poured praise the now concluding joint DRC-Rwanda military offensive against FDLR elements, castigating those he accused of aiming at fuelling friction between the two sister countries.

Julien Kahongya Paluku said this in an exclusive interview with The New Times, yesterday at his lakeside offices in the provincial capital Goma in the Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo's (DRC).

During the interview, the Governor stressed that things are very good ever since the armies of DRC and Rwanda started working together to hunt FDLR and destroy their bases in the eastern part of his country.

The FDLR (Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda) is a group of Rwandan insurgents who masterminded the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi and have been operating in Congo for the last 15 years.