Though peace is far secure between the Democratic Republic Of Congo and Rwanda, organized efforts to bring their youth together are multiplying.
Source: SYFIA INTERNATIONAL
Syfia International is an association of six independent African press agencies,
covering 30 African countries.
There is a religious litmus test for teachers in schools in this eastern stretch of Democratic Republic of Congo.
MUTWANGA — At the foot of mount Rwenzori, locals erupt in joy when they see their homes lit with electric light bulbs for the first time in their lives. Meanwhile, at the nearby Pic Hotel in Mutwanga, a small village in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), tourists are finally returning. Over the past few […]
LIPUA LIPUA — He’d been away for some time in Mbandaka, the capital of the northwestern Équateur province along the Congo River. But when Pierrot Mawambe returns to Lipua Lipua, a fisherman camp on an islet 80 kilometers downstream, he was stunned by the void where huge waka trees used to stand. “Timber harvesters cut […]
DOUMANGA — In this western village in the Republic of Congo, the local health center lacks both material and human resources. As a result, the only male nurse in Doumanga is the one assigned to help women of the village give birth. For Max Banzoulo, it has become a noble mission that he carries out […]
BRAZZAVILLE — In the area around the Congolese capital of Brazzaville, it’s common practice to burn vegetation in fields before planting crops. But this slash-and-burn approach inflicts severe damage to the forests and the soil, not to mention to the health of women, who are the primary farmers in this area. “The placement of these […]
Making charcoal requires cutting down trees and burning them in the ground, destroying in the process not only trees but also the fertility of the land. Farming output is on the decline, and environmentalists are signaling the need for change.
Categories
Congolese Women, Freedom Through Literacy
BRAZZAVILLE — It was only when she realized she’d handed her husband a letter written by his mistress that Alphonsine decided to act. Facing such heartbreak and humiliation, this 54-year-old housewife and mother of seven, decided to join a basic literacy class in the Congolese capital of Brazzaville. Like Alphonsine, many illiterate women have started […]
Representatives and victims in the Congo are pushing back on ancient traditions that render women without rights after the deaths of their husbands, even prohibiting them from eating or drinking when they want.
MATADI — Elie Luemba says her youngest son fooled her and her husband for far too long. “We used to give him a little money every morning to buy himself donuts at school,” she says. “But he was actually using the money to bet on sports results with his classmates.” The irony is that Luemba […]
Since the gradual reduction of subsidies from Rome to diocese in the Democratic Republic of Congo, vicars have turned to the faithful to ensure survival of parish churches.
A 12-year-old from Goma, DRC, recounts how the international NGO persuaded her to keep her baby.
Local planners in Bukavu, in the Democratic Republic of Congo, are clearing out homes and businesses that encroached over the years along the city’s main avenues.
GOMA — The situation inside Goma’s Muzenza Prison, in northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo, is highly charged and threatening to explode as severe overcrowding mixes with questions about the justice system itself. As many as 1,087 prisoners are crammed into a building designed for 150. Four out of every five prisoners are there in pre-trial […]
GOMA — Teachers raping their students is tragically all too common in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. But in the eastern region of South Kivu, it is a reality that is now finally being confronted, with the establishment of local committees in which parents, education officials and students report and track sexual assaults in […]
WALIKALE — They swapped their firearms for spades, machettes and hoes. Until very recently, the young people here used to be members of armed groups in Congo’s North Kivu that boasted names such as Kifua Fua (Stuck-out Chest) or Raia Mutomboki (Revolutionary People). But on this Saturday in early November, they are repairing a road […]
In the Democratic Republic of Congo, people have come to rely on the ability to do basic financial transactions anywhere. The downside is when cellular connection crashes.
In the DRC, families increasingly send the remains of deceased loved ones back to their home villages rather than bury them in the city. It is both an age-old tradition and a way to protect against irreverence.
In the Democratic Republic of Congo, a new biometric system aims to prevent locals from pilfering supplies meant for victims of civil conflict. The aid often ends up at local markets.
Looking for family members who have emigrated to Europe, or in search of better opportunities, Congolese girls instead find themselves prey at the hands of human traffickers.
MATADI — Diabetic patients in the Bas-Congo province, in the western region of the Democratic Republic of Congo, have had enough with traditional practitioners. They insist they won’t be conned again by those who claim they can cure everything from AIDS to hypertension and even diabetes, which some 1.5 million people suffer from in this […]
KIGALI — The shocking thought is said out loud, and repeated. “I can only be relieved when I kill my father.” The 19-year-old who calls himself DG seethes with rage when talking about his father. “He’s a coward, a torturer who doesn’t deserve anything but death,” he insists. The truth about his conception, birth and […]
Categories
Rwanda’s Tough Stance On Plastic Bags
KIGALI — In the courtyard of the Ecoplastic factory in the Rwandan capital, a group of men and women are hanging plastic bags on a line with clothes pins, like they would do to dry a load of wash. “People pick them here and there and bring them to us. We buy them and process […]
KIGALI — As the 20th anniversary of the Rwandan genocide approaches, a “flame of hope” is being carried across the entire country, a symbol of reconciliation and faith in a better future. “I want to make sure that everything’s in order,” says the president of the Tutsi genocide survivors group in northern Rwanda. “The flame […]
In the Democratic Republic of Congo, a crackdown on trafficking rings is not enough – there is also the question of parental responsbility. And extreme poverty.
MATADI — It’s one of the Internet revolution’s more twisted novelties. Men ready to do anything to get back at the girlfriend who left them or whom they suspect of cheating on them post naked photos or sex videos on social networks. And now, so-called “revenge porn” has also arrived in the Democratic Republic of […]
Women farmers in Lower Congo have been the first to notice the effects of desertification, and the first to react.
BUTEMBO — On the eve of the 2013-2014 academic year, the city of Butembo saw 22 new universities opening here, more than doubling the number of higher education institutions in a city of only 600,000 people. But they’re only universities by (pompous) name: “Superior Institute of Trade and Business,” “Doctoral School of Petrochemistry,” “Faculty of […]
NGOZI — In the north of Burundi, only the wealthiest farmers have the means to buy state-subsidized fertilizer. Poorer farmers make do with the garbage they can collect in the city — to the great delight of urban dwellers. Nsengimana Evariste is a poor pygmy farmer who collects garbage in the city of Ngozi. If […]
The inhabitants of Butembo rely increasingly on solar energy, allowing households to save money and be self-sufficient.
Categories
Prayers Are Not The Cure For Malaria
In southeastern Congo, where a malaria outbreak is killing young children, some believe the disease has mystical origins and turn to higher powers rather than doctors.
BUKAVU – For the past two years, agricultural production has been increasing in the province of South Kivu in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. And at least part of the credit goes to shopkeepers across the border in Rwanda. The neighboring store owners have been providing Congolese farmers with phytosanitary seeds and products that […]
MBANDAKA — Don’t tell Mfutu Etawale Ratis he’s a magician or a witch doctor. The self-proclaimed traditional practitioner says he can cure mental illness. And in this northwestern region of the Democratic Republic of Congo, where modern treatments are often missing, Ratis is one of the only people trying to help patients with mental disorders. […]
LIMETE — Three times a week here, in this municipality within the Kinshasa province of Congo, street children gather in the square to practice Brazilian capoeira, a martial art that incorporates dance, music and acrobatics. For the past seven years, these unlikely enthusiasts of the disclipline have occupied a portion of an abandoned basketball court. […]
BENI — On a recent Friday, soldiers of the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of Congo (FARDC) were spending the morning helping civilians clean the road that leads to the new cemetery of this northeastern Congolese city. Here, AK-47s have been replaced by hoes, spades and rakes. Colonel Tito Bizuri, who is in charge […]
Categories
“Medical Tourism,” African-Style
Every since a private insurance system was launched in Rwanda, its citizens regularly cross the Burundi border to get better, cheaper care.
Street children often abandon their own infants, who are sometimes raised by grandmothers or dropped at convents. But these young parents all wish them a better life than they had.
Whole families are forced to leave Rwanda’s struggling north. Boys look for work at an early age; the girls, instead, all too often are pushed to get married across the border in Uganda.
In the province of the Bas-Congo, southwest of Kinshasa, “prophecies” blame innocents for the misfortune of their loved ones.
Edged out for a time by greasy, imported food, traditional meals are staging a comeback in the Democratic Republic of Congo.