Development Blogs.com

(The Hague, November 18, 2008) - The International Criminal Court's decision today to proceed with the trial of a Congolese rebel leader accused of using child soldiers in the Democratic Republic of Congo is a victory for victims and fair trials, Human Rights Watch said. read...

The fact is, no matter how you slice it, eastern Congo is one of the worst places to be a woman today. It is a daily struggle to avoid fleeing one’s home, suffering a rape that ends in HIV infection or permanent physiological damage, losing a child to preventable, treatable disease. Rape is a tool of war and once women have suffered the act itself, they are often turned away by their communities afterward. This week Extra Extra, who has been tracking the recent upsurge of violence in eastern Congo, writes about the cri de couer of Congolese women. I left Congo nearly 7 months ago but I still think of her each day, half in hope, half in mourning. Congo has a long road ahead and I walked away from the small piece I had to play in her lifepath. Through my work in Congo, I knew of women...

While it’s a beautiful clear Sunday in Lilongwe, things back in Congo aren’t quite as sunny. What was initially reported as an unidentified disease outbreak in my old home province of Kasai Occidental is now confirmed to be Ebola Hemorrhagic Fever. Friends in the province report 170 confirmed deaths and about twice as many infections. Realistically speaking from my former life in hemorrhagic fever health communications, Ebola is a self-limiting bug, striking in remote places and killing most of its victims before they have a chance to pass it on to too many others. That being said, it still leaves a morbid wake in its path. On the political side, Fred reports that Laurent Nkunda in eastern Congo is still standing strong against integrating his private militia into the...

A leaked report by the World Bank's independent inspection panel has found the World Bank gravely broke its own rules in regard to rainforest policies and projects pursued since 2002 in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The World Bank encouraged foreign companies to destructively log DRC's rainforests, endangering the lives of thousands of Congolese Pygmies; misled Congo's government about the value of their forests, and repeatedly broke their own rules regarding natural habitat and indigenous protections. Congo's rainforests are the second largest in the world, hold some 8% of the Earth's carbon, and possess critical global ecosystems containing rich biodiversity. These forests provide medicines, shelter, timber and food for 40 million people. When the World Bank reentered...

A leaked report by the World Bank's independent inspection panel has found the World Bank gravely broke its own rules in regard to rainforest policies and projects pursued since 2002 in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The World Bank encouraged foreign companies to destructively log DRC's rainforests, endangering the lives of thousands of Congolese Pygmies; misled Congo's government about the value of their forests, and repeatedly broke their own rules regarding natural habitat and indigenous protections. Congo's rainforests are the second largest in the world, hold some 8% of the Earth's carbon, and possess critical global ecosystems containing rich biodiversity. These forests provide medicines, shelter, timber and food for 40 million people. When the World Bank reentered the...

7.20pm: Somebody get me out of here before I start spewing melodramatic headlines. Oops, too late. About ten minutes before dark, we heard that evacuation efforts have stopped for the night. Confronted with the uncomfortable choice of driving unaccompanied across town to take refuge in our embassy or a colleague’s house, or staying put and hoping the people who looted our parcelle last night don’t return for seconds, we chose to stay at home, preferring the devil we know to the carjackers we don’t. So we’ve locked all the doors, closed the curtains, turned off the lights, and are ready to make soup and think of England. Our neighbour is still stuck next door, so we may need to pass him more food and a perhaps a DVD, if he asks nicely. Pity we don’t have Panic...

A post-electoral privy. In an inspired example of recycling prowess, someone has found a new use for all those election banners with which the city was briefly festooned last year. Likewise, many of the cardboard posters have been transformed by origami into vending trays for peanuts, pens, cigarettes, medicinal twigs, and the like. I’ve just seen a sneak preview of the new government’s agenda. My favourite line promises: “la lutte contre toutes formes de tracasseries dont sont victimes les populations et les hommes d’affaires“. It translates quite awkwardly: ‘the struggle against all forms of nuisance of which the population and business-men are victims’. Quite apt, on the day we learn that DRC remains the hardest place in the world to do business....