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DR Congo rebels training to face UN force

Agence France-PresseApril 29, 2013 11:02
The M23 rebel group in eastern DR Congo said Monday that hundreds of its commanders were undergoing special training to face an offensive by a newly-formed UN combat force. "462 unit commanders have been on a refresher course since Friday in Rumangabo," a large military base in the North Kivu province, the group's military spokesman Vianney Kazarama told AFP. The UN Security Council this year approved its first ever offensive peacekeeping brigade in a bid to end years of failure in rooting out rebel groups and killer gangs in the restive region.

Nigerian Islamists got $3.15 million to free French hostages - document

April 26, 2013 13:00
By Tim Cocks LAGOS (Reuters) - Nigerian Islamist sect Boko Haram was paid an equivalent of around $3.15 million (2 million pounds) by French and Cameroonian negotiators before freeing seven French hostages this month, a confidential Nigerian government report obtained by Reuters said. The memo does not say who paid the ransom for the family of seven, who were all released on April 19, although it says Cameroon freed some Boko Haram detainees as part of the deal.

Pirates kidnap four off Equatorial Guinea

April 25, 2013 13:00
LONDON/ABUJA (Reuters) - Pirates kidnapped four crew members when they attacked a container ship off the coast of Equatorial Guinea, the vessel's management company said on Thursday. Hamburg-based shipping firm Leonhardt and Blumberg said the four hostages - two Ukrainians, a Russian and one from the Pacific island nation of Kiribati - were taken when the Liberia-flagged Hansa Marburg was attacked on Tuesday by armed men. The raid took place around 130 nautical miles off the coast of the small West African oil producer.

CORRECTED: UN calls for inquiry into migrant abuse on border with DRC

Agence France-PresseApril 24, 2013 16:45
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay on Wednesday called for an inquiry into reports of violence and sexual abuse of migrants crossing over from the Democratic Republic of Congo. Pillay, speaking in a news conference in the Angolan capital during a three-day visit, said such allegations had been circulating for a decade.

UN calls for inquiry into migrant abuse on border with DRC

Agence France-PresseApril 24, 2013 16:30
UN High Commissioner for Refugees Navi Pillay on Wednesday called for an inquiry into reports of violence and sexual abuse of migrants crossing over from the Democratic Republic of Congo. Pillay, speaking in a news conference in the Angolan capital during a three-day visit, said such allegations had been circulating for a decade.

AFP Africa News Agenda

Agence France-PresseApril 22, 2013 02:30
What's happening in Africa on Monday: + Nigerian troops clash with Islamists + Ivory Coast local polls test stability + French parliament votes on Mali mission KANO, Nigeria: Nigeria's military clashed with suspected Islamist insurgents in a remote northeastern village at the weekend, with many feared dead, although casualty figures remained unclear. (NIGERIA-UNREST)

DR Congo activists see sentences slashed

Agence France-PresseApril 20, 2013 11:30
Twelve activists in the Democratic Republic of Congo sentenced to 20 years behind bars for organising a demonstration have had their jail terms drastically reduced, a rights group said on Saturday. "They were sentenced to a maximum of one year. Some were sentenced to six months in jail, others to a year," Jean-Claude Katende, head of the Kinshasa-based human rights organisation ASADHO, told AFP. He added that "the fact the sentence was reduced from 20 years to a maximum of one year shows that the case against them was groundless".

French family arrive home after hostage ordeal

Agence France-PresseApril 20, 2013 02:00
French President Francois Hollande welcomed a family of seven back to France early Saturday as they flew into Paris after two months in the hands of Nigeria's Islamist militants. The Moulin-Fournier family, which includes four boys aged between five and 12, flew in from Cameroon on a French government Falcon jet with Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius. Blankets draped over their shoulders against the early-morning chill and smiling broadly, they stepped off the plane and into the arms of relatives before retiring to the airport's VIP pavilion.

French family kidnapped in Cameroon freed

Agence France-PresseApril 19, 2013 15:15
A French family abducted by Islamist extremists two months ago while holidaying in Cameroon emerged unscathed from their ordeal on Friday, with Paris staying quiet on the details of how their release was secured. Tanguy and Albane Moulin-Fournier, their four children and Tanguy's brother, Cyril, were kidnapped in Cameroon on February 19 and taken to neighbouring Nigeria. Their captors were a group called Boko Haram, an al-Qaeda-linked Islamist sect blamed for killing thousands of people in an insurgency in northern Nigeria since 2009.

French family kidnapped in Cameroon freed

Agence France-PresseApril 19, 2013 08:46
A French family abducted while holidaying in Cameroon emerged unscathed from their ordeal on Friday after two months in the hands of Islamic extremists. Tanguy and Albane Moulin-Fournier, their four children and Tanguy's brother, Cyril, were kidnapped in Cameroon on February 19 and taken to neighbouring Nigeria. They were handed back to Cameroonian authorities on Thursday night in circumstances that remained unclear after an experience that left them exhausted but otherwise in good health.
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