The soldiers were part of a southern African peacekeeping mission sent to help government forces in the Democratic Republic of Congo fight M23 rebels. Mortar fire in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) killed three Tanzanian soldiers who were part of a Southern African peacekeeping mission sent to help government forces fight M23 rebels, the Southern African Development Community (SADC) said on Monday. "This unfortunate incident happened after a hostile mortar round had fallen near the camp they were staying at," the 16-member bloc said in a statement. Three other Tanzanian soldiers were wounded, it added. The statement added that another South African soldier on the SADC mission had died while receiving treatment for unspecified health problems at a hospital in the provincial capital, Goma. It was not clear if that death was related to the mortar round. The force includes soldiers from regional military heavyweights South Africa, Tanzania and Malawi.  The SADC mission suffered its first losses in mid-February, when two South African soldiers were killed and three wounded by a mortar bomb. What is the SADC mission doing in DRC? After several years of dormancy, the predominantly Tutsi M23 (March 23 Movement) group took up arms again in late 2021. It has seized large swaths of DR Congo's North Kivu province, which has been wracked by violence in the decades since regional wars in the 1990s. The Democratic Republic of Congo, the United Nations and Western countries accuse Rwanda of supporting the rebels in a bid to control the region's vast mineral wealth, a charge Rwanda denies. The regional bloc SADC sent soldiers to North Kivu province in December to help the government tackle instability and armed groups in the restive eastern region. The SADC mission was to take over from an East African peacekeeping force, whose mandate was ended by the DRC, which accused it of colluding with the rebels instead of fighting them. Meanwhile, the UN mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (MONUSCO) is also winding down. The 15,000 UN troops began leaving in February at the request of the DRC government, which considers them ineffective.  

The CODECO rebel group has been blamed for the attacks on villages in DRC's Ituri province. The militant organization was once a peaceful agricultural cooperative. More than 40 people were killed in attacks on villages in the northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo, a civil society organization said Saturday. "They burned down several homes. There are also seven people wounded," said Dieudonne Lossa, the president of the organization in Banyari Kilo, the area in Ituri province where the attacks took place. Former peacemakers-turned-rebels blamed Local sources blamed the attacks on the CODECO militants, saying they attacked at least three villages, around 60 kilometers (37 miles) from the provincial capital of Bunia. A regional administrator, Innocent Matukadala, said CODECO rebels had arrived at around 0500 local time/GMT on Friday, with the Congolese army responding around three hours later. He put the death toll at 42. The army confirmed the attack to local media and said it was searching for the perpetrators. Banyali Kilo resident Jean Basiloke said children were among the victims. CODECO, the Cooperative for the Development of the Congo, is one of the myriad armed groups operating in the restive mineral-rich region. It was started as an agricultural cooperative in 1970s to protect the interests of the local Lendu community. During the Ituri war (1999-2003), however, it transformed into an armed militia that claims to protect the Lendu from another local ethnic group, the Hema, and the army. Fighting between CODECO and Zaire, a mainly ethnic Hema self-defense group, has been ongoing since 2017 but worsened recently. In February, CODECO fighters killed at least 32 civilians, local officials said. In December, the UN said the insurgent group was expanding its areas of control, attacking civilians and members of Congo's military, and taxing communities in the areas that it holds. Deteriorating security in eastern DRC Eastern Congo is plagued by dozens of armed militias, many of which are a legacy of regional wars that flared in the 1990s and 2000s. Most of the groups are fighting for land and control of mines with valuable minerals, while others are trying to protect their communities. Ituri province is one of the violence hotspots, where attacks claiming dozens of lives are routine. The government declared a state of siege in Ituri and neighboring North Kivu province in 2021, in an attempt to stem rampant militia violence. But the killings and rebel activity have not shown any sign of abating.

Up to 50 people were killed when a train derailed in Congo’s southeastern province of Tanganyika in the early hours of Thursday, government officials said, although their reports on the number of casualties differed widely. The Minister for Humanitarian Affairs, Steve Mbikayi, said the derailment happened around 3 a.m. local time, near the town of Mayibaridi, and the death toll of 50 was provisional. “Speaking for the government, I present my condolences to the families affected,” he said on Twitter. The governor of Tanganyika, Zoe Kabila, later gave a lower provisional toll of 10 people killed and 30 injured. He said three of the train’s carriages had come off the tracks. Deadly transport accidents are common in Democratic Republic of Congo due to poor infrastructure and lack of regulation. Source: Reuters AH

One out of four people interviewed in eastern Congo last year believed Ebola wasn't real, according to a new study released Wednesday, underscoring the enormous challenges health care workers are now facing. The survey found that a deep mistrust of the Ebola response resulted in those people being 15 times less likely to seek medical treatment at an Ebola health center, according to the study published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases journal. The study was based on interviews conducted last September, about a month after the outbreak began. It comes as the number of probable and confirmed cases has exceeded 1,000. At least 639 people have died from Ebola since August in what is now the second deadliest outbreak in history, according to the World Health Organization. The outbreak's response has been hampered by a series of deadly attacks on Ebola health centers since the study was completed. As a result, Doctors Without Borders has stopped staffing two health centers at the outbreak's epicenter after violent attacks. Researchers said their study published Wednesday showed more precisely how individual people's misinformed views about Ebola were undermining the response and helping to spread the deadly virus. "It really helps us understand how central and fundamental community trust should be as part of the response," said Patrick Vinck of Harvard University, who led the research. Eva Erlach, the community engagement and accountability delegate for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, called the findings "absolutely interesting" and said they show how the level of trust correlates with preventative behaviors. The organization has had more than 800 trained volunteers working to get out prevention messages amid the region's security challenges. "There is still a part of the community who do not believe that Ebola is real and we definitely still need to continue focusing on community engagement," said Erlach, who was not part of the study. "And this is why this report is so helpful even if it's from September." WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said earlier this month he was encouraged "to see the communities accepting the response more and more." Wednesday's study highlights just how pervasive misinformation has been in places in eastern Congo like Beni and Butembo, where in-person interviews were conducted with 961 people. Some 25.5 percent of those interviewed did not believe Ebola was real. In addition, nearly 45.9 percent of people thought the Ebola outbreak was being fabricated to destabilize the region or for financial gain. Additionally 18.2 percent believed all three of those statements, the study found. Those who didn't believe Ebola was real were far less likely to agree to agree to the Ebola vaccine or to go to a treatment center. Ebola is spread through the bodily fluids of the sick, and isolation of those infected is key to stopping transmission. This outbreak has been uniquely challenging because of the volatile security situation in the region. Eastern Congo is home to numerous armed groups and the Ebola epidemic has deepened the political and economic grievances of many in the area. The fact that people in Ebola affected areas were excluded from the December presidential election has only heightened conspiracy theories. Tariq Riebl, of the International Rescue Committee, who is currently working in eastern Congo, said the findings released Wednesday mirror what he and his colleagues are seeing on the ground. Concern remains about how Ebola prevention efforts are going because new cases are still emerging. "Once you reach a wider outbreak zone, especially urban zones, the community engagement and prevention side of things is almost more important than the treatment side," Riebl said. "If you can't have those messages out successfully, it doesn't matter if you have all the treatment options available because no one is ever arriving to take advantage of that," he said. Source: AP AH