DRC – 2 February 2016

How to Reform the Democratic Republic of Congo

Rethink development strategy and make transparency a priority. Every return visit to my native country, the Democratic Republic of Congo, brings fresh surprises—almost never the good kind. This is especially true outside the relative comfort of upper-class Gombe district in Kinshasa, the capital, and above all in rural areas, where most of the country’s almost 80 million people live.

TIME

UN relief agency warns over deteriorating security in North Kivu

The UN relief wing has warned that the security situation is deteriorating in North Kivu, the Democratic Republic of the Congo where kidnapping of aid workers and civilians as well as attacks on convoys have increased. UN Deputy Spokesperson Farhan Haq told a daily briefing that the deteriorating security situation has often forced organizations to delay the delivery of aid and other essential operations or entirely suspend activities.

According to Haq, Medecins Sans Frontieres, an international medical humanitarian organization, announced on Wednesday the closure of one of its medical projects that helped nearly 200,000 patients in 2015 after one of its convoys was robbed and two staff abducted in December.

Coastweek.com