Ashish Kumar Sen

The Islamic State, pushed out of its strongholds in Syria and Iraq, could seek to establish a caliphate in the heart of Africa, Congolese President Félix Tshisekedi warned in a meeting at the Atlantic Council in Washington on April 4. He sought a “strategic partnership” with the United States, one of the pillars of which would be military assistance to address the challenge of terrorism.

Two prominent Congolese presidential hopefuls, speaking at the Atlantic Council in Washington on May 23, announced that they were joining forces against the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s longtime president Joseph Kabila.

In the DRC, Joseph Kabila Kicks the Can Down the Road  Joseph Kabila, the president of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), is unlikely to abide by the terms of an agreement that aims to end his fifteen-year rule and ensure the DRC’s first-ever democratic transition of power, said J. Peter Pham, director of the Atlantic Council’s Africa Center.

Joseph Kabila Has Passed His Expiration Date   The United States must ratchet up pressure on Congolese President Joseph Kabila in an attempt to convince him to leave office; a failure to do so would risk dragging the country and its neighbors into a costly war, said J. Peter Pham, director of the Atlantic Council’s Africa Center.

In DRC, Questions About President Kabila’s Intentions   Joseph Kabila has no intention of seeking a third term in office. The fact that he will likely remain president of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) long after his term ends in December—until a successor is elected—is simply because he respects the constitution, said Barnabé Kikaya Bin Karubi, the president’s diplomatic advisor.

Congolese Presidential Candidate Urges Use of Sanctions to Bring About Democratic Change in DRC   Moise Katumbi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s leading opposition candidate for president, has urged the international community to use sanctions to press Congolese President Joseph Kabila to give up power. A political crisis in a country where war claimed around five million lives between 1994 and 2003 could create instability that spreads to the DRC’s neighbors, he warned.

US, EU Pressure Sought on Congo’s Kabila The United States and the European Union must continue to press Congolese President Joseph Kabila to leave office at the end of his second term in 2016 because the country’s constitution bars him from seeking a third term, opposition officials from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) said March 9.

U.S. diplomat calls for international action in Congo The international community has “a moral imperative” to end the violence that has killed more than 5 million people in the Democratic Republic of the Congo since 1998, the State Department ’s top diplomat for Africa said Monday.

The son of Congo’s former dictator vowed to use military force to crack down on Congolese soldiers and rebels who have kept up a years-long campaign of rape against civilians in the Central African nation, saying he will hold the guilty accountable if he is elected president.

Sexual misconduct by Indian soldiers and officers on UN duty in Congo raises disturbing questions.

A draft U.N. report accusing the Rwandan army of massacring Hutus in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in the 1990s is corroborated by findings of an international human rights group.