Our weekly round-up of must-read stories you might have missed. In focus this week: Congo.
Your Calls for Congo Peace Reached The White House – February 5, 2013
As Neema Namadamu toured the US this past fall, heralding a women-led peace movement in the Democratic Republic of Congo, she had a goal in sight: for her message to reach the White House. Thanks to your signatures on her Change.org petition, Neema’s dream has become a reality. On January 29, Neema gathered the Maman Shujaa ‘Hero Women’ around a phone in Bukavu, DRC to await the call from Washington, while her Congolese ‘sister’ Adele Kibasumba hand delivered their petition to White House National Security Council leaders. World Pulse founder/CEO Jensine Larsen, Change.org organizer Shelby Knox, Enough Project campaign manager JD Stier, and actress Robin Wright joined her in delivering 100,000+ signatures and one united message urging the appointment of a special presidential envoy for peace in DRC…
Conflict Gold 101 – February 8, 2013
Today the Raise Hope for Congo campaign released a new campaign video, “Conflict Gold 101.” The video outlines the details of Congo’s conflict gold trade and puts the spotlight on jewelry companies who can play a role in reforming this deadly trade. The trade in conflict minerals—gold, tin, tungsten, and tantalum—is one of the primary drivers of violence in eastern Congo. Gold has emerged as the most lucrative conflict mineral because it is easy to smuggle small quantities for large profits. More than $600 million in gold is estimated to leave Congo annually, and fighting in and around gold mines continues, especially as armed groups allied with the M23 rebels attempt to take control of mines and trading routes. Conflict gold mined at one of the 15 major mines across eastern Congo follows six steps in a supply chain until it reaches its final form: gold bars or jewelry…
How Obama can end Congo conflict – February 9, 2013
Now that President Obama has taken a public stand on the warlords and militia gangs tyrannizing DR Congo, there is a sense that the next chapter in the human tragedy that has been raging there over the past decade and half is about to be written — or so we can hope. In the DRC — Africa’s largest sub-Saharan country — invasions, proxy wars and humanitarian crises have senselessly shut down millions of lives, displaced millions more from their homes and left countless women and young girls brutally raped with the world barely raising an eyebrow. The latest murderous attempt by the M23 militia gang to besiege Goma, the strategic regional capital of Congo’s eastern province of North Kivu, seems to have backfired…
South Africa police: Congo rebel ‘ringleader’ arrested – February 10, 2013
Police in South Africa said Sunday they arrested the “ringleader” of a group of 19 Congolese rebels who now face charges of allegedly plotting a war to unseat Congolese President Joseph Kabila. The leader, who police declined to identify before his arraignment this week in a Pretoria court, was arrested Friday in Cape Town, said Capt. Paul Ramaloko, a spokesman for South African Police Service. Ramaloko said the man didn’t fight his arrest, though he declined to offer any other details. “He cooperated with us,” the captain said. Ramaloko identified the man as the “ringleader” of the alleged rebel group, making it likely the man is Etienne Kabila, who prosecutors identified last week as being in charge of the group. Kabila claims to be a son of Congo’s assassinated president Laurent Kabila, something the Kabila family denies. Laurent Kabila’s son, Joseph Kabila, is Congo’s current president…
