IGIHE

Category: Rubrique

  • AU 10-member Observer Team Arrives in Zimbabwe

    {{A 10-member African Union (AU) pre-observer team arrived, June 18, in Zimbabwe to assess the political situation ahead of harmonised elections set for July 31.}}

    AU political officer Mr Idrissa Kamara is leading the team that includes Ms Joyce Pitso, Ms Chirambo Kondwani, Mr Gilbert Khadiagala, all of South Africa; Mr Job Akuni, Mr Crispy Praise Kaheru and Ms Hope-Mary Nsagi of Uganda; Mrs Maraetile Polaki of Lesotho; Mr Emmanuel Abegunde of Nigeria and South Sudanese national Mr Remember Miamingi.

    Ms Chirambo is co-ordinating the team.

    Zimbabwe Electoral Commission deputy chairperson Mrs Joyce Kazembe said nine members of the team would remain in the country to observe the whole electoral process, while one would return to the AU headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

    Kazembe said the electoral body would accredit the AU team tomorrow.

    The AU announced the deployment through a letter to Government earlier this month.

    “The Commission of African Union presents its compliments to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Zimbabwe and has the honour to inform the latter that the chairperson of the African Union Commission has decided to deploy nine long-term observers to Zimbabwe to monitor the upcoming general elections tentatively scheduled for 31st July 2013,” reads part of the letter.

    The arrival of the observers was further testimony of the AU’s endorsement of the date for the harmonised polls coming as it did just a day after the continental bloc stressed that only Zimbabweans can resolve any contestation over their election date as it was not proper for anyone else to second-guess the country’s courts.

    Addressing a Press conference in Geneva, Switzerland, on Monday, African Union Commission chairperson Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma said the only question should be whether the polls are free and fair.

    “The courts have said the elections must take place. And so do we listen to the courts? Or do we not listen to the courts?

    “I thought a lot of you have always been talking to us about the rule of law and respect for the Judiciary,” Reuters quoted Dr Dlamini-Zuma as saying.

    “So I don’t know. The Zimbabweans must sort it out, whether they listen to the Judiciary and go with what the Judiciary has said, or whether they ignore it.”

    The Constitutional Court ruled, with a crushing majority of seven judges assenting to two dissenting, that harmonised elections be held by July 31 in the wake of an application by Mr Jealousy Mawarire of the Centre for Elections and Democracy who wanted the court to compel President Mugabe to proclaim the election date before the expiry of the life of the Seventh Parliament.

    {Mrs Joyce Kazembe ,Zimbabwe’s Electoral Commission deputy chairperson}

    Source: {Herald}

  • Afghan President Suspends talks with US over Taliban Move

    {{Afghan President Hamid Karzai says he has suspended talks with the U.S. on a new security deal to protest the way the Americans are reaching out to the Taliban in efforts to find a political solution to the war.}}

    Karzai says he has suspended negotiations with the U.S. on what troops will remain in the country after 2014.

    He says he did this “in view of the contradiction between acts and the statements made by the United States of America in regard to the peace process.”

    The Afghan president’s statement was released by his office on Wednesday.

    Karzai has said he wants one-on-one talks with the Taliban but the Taliban and U.S. announced they would begin talks together first, before the Afghan government was brought in.

    AP

  • ‘Western interference in country’s electoral process not to be tolerated’

    {{Zimbabweans should be wary of Western countries bent on causing political disturbances in an attempt to discredit the electoral processes in the country, Vice President Joice Mujuru has said.}}

    VP Mujuru said as the country geared for the harmonised elections on July 31, Western interference in the country’s electoral process would not be tolerated.

    She made the remarks in Mhondoro yesterday while addressing hundreds of Apostolic Faith Church members during the church’s 100 years anniversary.

    “We are a sovereign State and we are able to develop our country alone.
    “We do not need guidance from Western countries as most of them have shown us that they are there to siphon our resources only,” VP Mujuru said.

    “In a bid to achieve their targets some of them come to cause divisions among ourselves and while we will be fighting they will be busy looting our resources and this is a thing we should be wary of.”

    VP Mujuru took a swipe at leaders of some political parties in the inclusive Government who are not able to solve their problems internally and seek the intervention of other countries.

    “Some of us instead of sitting down for negotiations when there are disagreements, they go around the world seeking the intervention of other countries,” she said.

    “This is a sign of immaturity because those countries do not have a say in our affairs and will never influence our operations. Zimbabwean problems should be solved by the Zimbabwean people.”

    Government, she said, would continue working with churches because the two were inseparable since the liberation struggle.

    “Zanu-PF is about the people and churches are also about people meaning we will continue working hand in hand to improve the conditions and welfare of our people,” VP Mujuru said.

    “The same applies with traditional leaders. Some people say Zanu-PF has patronised traditional leaders but how can you separate the revolutionary party with the custodians of the land (chiefs).

    Our people need land and Zanu-PF has been fighting for that since time immemorial and now to ensure everyone benefits it has to work with traditional leaders.”

    She urged Zimbabweans to co-exist and tolerate each other ahead of the elections, saying Zanu-PF had resolved to expel party leaders and members who fan violence in the name of the revolutionary party.

    “We have crafted our constitution as a party and one of the guidelines is that those who cause violence, be it leadership or ordinary members, in the name of Zanu-PF or President Mugabe, should be fired forever,” said VP Mujuru.

    “Violence hinders development and it should never be given any chance.
    “Despite different political affiliations, at the end of the day we will discover that we are all Zimbabweans.

    “People should choose leaders of their choice and we also do not tolerate the imposition of candidates,” said VP Mujuru.

    Churches, VP Mujuru said, should also participate in the indigenisation and empowerment programme being implemented by Zanu-PF.

    “Some of you took the land reform programme for granted and were left out in the exercise but now we are moving towards economic empowerment and this is an opportunity you should make use of to empower yourself.”

    Apostolic Christian Church of Zimbabwe Bishop Johannes Ndanga urged church members to register as voters and vote resoundingly for President Mugabe in the polls.

    He said the sanctions imposed on the country by Western countries had brought untold suffering among Zimbabweans.

    “This is the time to defeat the MDC and its allies once and for all. We have been made to appear as beggars simply because of sanctions but we remained vigilant and succeeded in the face of the embargo,” Bishop Ndanga said.

    “We are always open that we support Zanu-PF because of its clear empowerment programme and we pledge to continue working with the revolutionary party forever.”

    The celebrations were attended by senior Government officials and traditional leaders.

    {Herald. }

  • Moderate Cleric Rouhani ahead in Iran poll

    {{Moderate cleric Hassan Rouhani has taken a commanding lead in Iran’s presidential election based on the latest results, with about 25% of the total votes counted, according to the interior ministry .}}

    Rouhani, a former nuclear negotiator, leads with 5,003,633 votes, 50.8 percent of counted votes.

    He is followed by Tehran mayor Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf with 1,582,724, 16.1 percent of the votes.

    Mohsen Rezaei, a former head of the elite Revolutionary Guard, is now in third place with 1,298,597 votes racing past Saeed Jalili, Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator, who has 1,229,151 votes.

    Trailing the field were former Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Velayati with 620,908 votes, and little-known former minister Mohammad Gharazi with 124,129 votes.

    Earlier, Interior Minister Mostafa Mohammad Najjar told state television on Saturday that his electoral staff would not “compromise accuracy for speed”.

    Iran’s state-owned news network Press TV said that voter turnout in the presidential election has been around 80%. That is about 40 million votes out of a possible maximum of 50 million.

    Polling stations stayed open for up to five hours later than planned as millions of Iranians turned out to cast their votes.

    An announcement of initial results by the Interior Ministry, scheduled for around 1:30am local time, was then postponed by several hours.

    {Aljazeera}

  • Iran Votes for New President, Khamenei Slams U.S. Doubts

    {{Iranians voted for a new president on Friday urged by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to turn out in force to discredit suggestions by arch foe the United States that the election would be unfair.}}

    The ballot, the first presidential poll since a disputed 2009 contest led to months of unrest, is unlikely to bring profound change in Iran’s rocky ties with the West, but it might bring a softening of the antagonistic style adopted by outgoing President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

    World powers in talks with Iran over its nuclear program are looking for signs of a recalibration of its negotiating stance after eight years of intransigence under Ahmadinejad.

    Iran’s Gulf Arab neighbors are also wary of Iran’s influence in Iraq next door and its backing for President Bashar al-Assad and his Lebanese allies Hezbollah in the Syrian civil war. The Sunni Arab kingdoms are backing the rebels in Syria.

    Voting in the capital Tehran, Khamenei called on Iranians to vote in large numbers and derided Western misgivings about the credibility of the vote.

    “I recently heard that someone at the U.S. National Security Council said ‘we do not accept this election in Iran’,” he said.

    “We don’t give a damn,” he added.

    On May 24 U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry called into question the credibility of the election, criticizing the disqualification of candidates and accusing Tehran of disrupting Internet access.

    Iran’s Guardian Council, the state body that vets all candidates, has barred a number of hopefuls from the roster in the ballot, including former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, who is seen as sympathetic to reform.

    Iranians can choose from a slate of six candidates, all of whom were approved to run by the Guardian Council.

    “What is important is that everyone takes part,” Khamenei said. “Our dear nation should come (to vote) with excitement and liveliness, and know that the destiny of the country is in their hands and the happiness of the country depends on them.”

    {agencies}

  • Mugabe Announces Election Date July 31

    {{Zimbabwe’s president officially announced Thursday that elections will go ahead next month despite opposition from the prime minister, setting the stage for a political standoff between the longtime rivals.}}

    In an official government notice Thursday, President Robert Mugabe said that he was empowered to set the presidential election for July 31.

    Legislative and local elections will also take place that day, and a presidential runoff will be held Sept. 11 if necessary, the notice said.

    Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai has strongly objected to holding elections next month, accusing Mugabe of choosing the date unilaterally and saying that he will not accept Mugabe’s decision.

    “I appeal to fellow Zimbabweans to remain calm and vigilant in the face of this provocation and illegality,” Tsvangirai said earlier Thursday before the notice was officially released. He said he had received a letter from Mugabe informing him of the decision.

    Mugabe was forced by regional leaders to form a coalition government with former opposition leader Tsvangirai after violent and disputed elections in 2008. The coalition agreement demands its leaders consult and agree on major policy decisions including a timeframe for fresh polls.

    The longtime president has said he is abiding by a court ruling calling for the vote to go ahead in July.

    Tsvangirai, though, claims the lawsuit was instigated by Mugabe’s loyalists eager for early polls so that they can take advantage of loopholes in the electoral laws to rig the vote.

    agencies

  • Sudan’s Opposition Leader Denies 100-day scheme to Topple Regime

    {{The leader of the opposition National Umma Party (NUP), Al-Sadig Al-Mahdi, has distanced himself from a 100-day plan to overthrow the government which was adopted last week by the opposition umbrella National Consensus forces (NCF).}}

    Al-Mahdi said at a press conference on Wednesday that the ruling National Congress Party (NCP) has to choose between sitting at a round table with all opposition forces to resolve the issues of the country and forming a transitional government or facing a popular uprising and peaceful protests.

    The former prime minister also announced a new initiative to change the regime through collecting a million signatures and organising sit-ins in public squares and other places.

    He pointed out that the initiative will be implemented expeditiously to avert any possible war between Khartoum and Juba, with the aim of finding common ground with Sudan Revolutionary Front (SRF) rebels.

    Al-Mahdi disclosed that he was approached to participate in the summit meeting which will soon be organised by the presidency, saying that he had been assured that all parties will participate in the meeting and that freedom of discussion will be fully guaranteed.

    The NUP leader, who avoided using the phrase “toppling the regime” and instead used “changing the regime”, downplayed the effectiveness of the NCF’s 100-day plan, saying his initiative offered a different solution.

    He called upon authorities not to suppress the sit-ins and said that “We will try to avoid clashes with the authorities and the latter must respect the desire of the people”, adding that internal circumstances are conducive for change.

    Al-Mahdi also revealed that he made contacts with some international parties about the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) arrest warrant against Sudan’s president, Omer al-Bashir, to arrive at an agreement, saying that the parties showed flexibility towards his call for reconciling between stability and the implications of the arrest warrant.

    He directed scathing criticism at the NCF, saying the 100-day plan to topple the regime is in effect an explicit call to suppress it and said that his party was not involved in the preparation and coordination of the plan, stressing that he supports change through peaceful means and not toppling the government within 100 days.

    NUP’s representative at the NCF, Abd Al-Galil Al-Basha, passed a note to Al-Mahdi during his remarks, saying that he had participated in all stages of preparation for the 100-day plan.

    However, al-Mahdi ignored the note, saying instead that the initiative was aimed at mobilising, not overthrowing the regime.

    The NUP leader further called upon the government to reconsider its decision to halt the flow of South Sudan’s oil through Sudanese territory and said that the government’s pretext for stoppage is a “lame excuse” as rebel support continued even after Juba shut down its oil fields last January following a dispute over transit fees.

    He also praised remarks by South Sudanese president Salva Kiir calling for calm.

    Khartoum has said that its decision to halt the flow of oil was in response to South Sudan’s funding of rebels fighting his government.

    Al-Mahdi said that African Union mediator Thabo Mbeki will put forward new proposals to bring closer the views of Sudan and South Sudan notably, the formation of a committee of wise men to take up the complaints of the two sides, saying that Mbeki believes that the main differences between the two countries are the support of the armed opposition and disagreement over border areas.

    In a separate issue, the opposition leader said that Sudan would largely benefit from the controversial Ethiopian renaissance dam as it will provide continuous water flow throughout the year, as well as reducing sedimentation in Al-Rusairs dam and producing cheap electricity which could be exported to Sudan.

    The remarks by the NUP chief will likely fuel long-standing suspicions by other opposition parties that al-Mahdi is working to frustrate any efforts to move in the direction of regime change.

    The decision by al-Mahdi’s son, Abdel-Rahman, to take up the post of presidential assistant was widely seen as a step by al-Mahdi to appease the ruling NCP.

    Some within the NUP politburo privately say that they believe al-Mahdi has forged a secret deal with the NCP in which he agreed to block any efforts in the direction of regime change.

    {{ST}}

  • Who are Iranian Presidential Candidates?

    {{A look at the six candidates in Iran’s presidential election Friday. Two others — parliament member Gholam Ali Haddad Adel and former Vice President Mohammad Reza Aref — withdrew earlier this week.}}
    ___
    {{SAEED JALILI}}: Iran’s top nuclear negotiator since 2007 and considered a hardliner. Jalili, 47, is believed to have backing from many in the ruling theocracy, including possibly Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

    He also gained the support of ultraconservative cleric Ayatollah Mohammad Taghi Mesbah Yazdi, who was previously seen as the spiritual mentor of outgoing President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

    At campaign stops, Jalili’s slogan was chanted by supporters: No compromise; no submission. Jalili also is often hailed as a “living martyr” because of losing part of his right leg in 1980-88 war with Iraq.

    He worked as a university lecturer before joining the Foreign Ministry in 1989, where he rose in the ranks until his appointment in 2001 as a senior policy adviser in Khamenei’s office.

    He later served as an adviser to Ahmadinejad and deputy foreign minister for European and American Affairs. He took over the important nuclear negotiator role in 2007 — in a move that surprised even some Iranian hard-liners for his rapid rise.

    A U.S. diplomatic cable at the time — part of the documents made public by WikiLeaks — interpreted the decision as “a move to forestall any compromises on the nuclear issue.” Another cable in January 2008 noted that a European Union official described Jalili as unbending, dogmatic and “a true product of the Iranian Revolution.”
    ___
    {{HASAN ROWHANI}}: A former nuclear negotiator and close ally of former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, who was blocked from the ballot by Iran’s election overseers. Rowhani, 64, is the only cleric among the candidates and viewed as a relative moderate.

    He has drawn support from reformist leaders after a rival, former Vice President Mohammad Reza Aref, dropped out of the race in attempts to consolidate the liberal-leaning camp.

    Rowhani started religious studies at a teenager and soon established himself as an outspoken opponent of the Western-backed shah, traveling frequently for anti-monarchy speeches and sermons that caught the attention of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the eventual leader of the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

    Rowhani graduated from Tehran University with a law degree in 1972. He then says he went abroad to Glasgow Caledonian University for a master’s degree in legal affairs.

    After the revolution, Rowhani rose quickly with various roles, including reorganizing the military, serving in the new parliament and overseeing the state broadcaster. He strengthened his ties to Rafsanjani during the 1980-88 war with Iraq and, later, as Rafsanjani’s top national security adviser during his 1989-97 terms.

    Rowhani took over the nuclear portfolio in 2003, a year after Iran’s 20-year-old nuclear program was revealed. Iran later temporarily suspended all uranium enrichment-related activities to avoid possible sanctions from the U.N. Security Council.

    Ahmadinejad strongly opposed any such concessions. Rowhani resigned as nuclear negotiator and head of the Supreme National Security Council after a few testy postelection meetings with Ahmadinejad.

    At campaign rallies, Rowhani has pledged to seek “constructive interaction with the world” that includes efforts to ease Western concerns about Iran’s program and lift punishing international sanctions that have pummeled the economy.
    ___
    {{MOHAMMAD BAGHER QALIBAF}}: Tehran mayor and former commander of the Revolutionary Guard during the Iran-Iraq war.

    Qalibaf, 51, has built a reputation as a dynamic leader for a host of quality-of-life projects around Iran’s capital including parks, expanded subways lines and highways.

    But he also has faced accusations that he took part in crackdowns against student protesters in 1999 while with the Guard and, four years later, allegedly ordered a full-scale assault to crush another flare-up of student unrest.
    Like many Iranian leaders of his generation, Qalibaf got his footholds in power during the 1980-88 war with Iraq.

    Qalibaf was a Revolutionary Guard commander and later appointed to run one of the Guard’s main economic conglomerates. He was appointed as the Guard’s air force commander in 1997 despite not being a flier, but later received his license and now sometimes pilots passenger planes.

    He was named head of Iran’s police forces in the shakeup after the 1999 Tehran University riots, which marked one of the first major displays of dissent against Iran’s ruling clerics.

    Qalibaf also brings a rare element in Iran’s macho politics: A high-profile wife who has carved out her own political identity.

    Zahra Sadat Moshiri, a former professor of social sciences at Tehran’s Sharif University of Technology, has served as Qalibaf’s adviser on women’s affairs for Tehran. She has hosted many conferences on women’s issues, including some that reflect her views about balancing Islamic traditions with needs to advance women’s roles on all levels including politics.
    ___
    {{ALI AKBAR VELAYATI}}: Top adviser to Supreme Leader Khamenei on international affairs. Velayati, 67, served as foreign minister during the 1980-88 war with Iraq and into the 1990s. He was among the suspects named by Argentina in a 1994 bombing of a Jewish center in Buenos Aires that killed 85 people.

    Velayati received a degree in pediatric medicine at Tehran University in the 1960s and later studied at Johns Hopkins University. After the 1979 Islamic Revolution, he shifted into politics as a member of the first parliament and deputy health minister.

    Velayati was proposed by Khamenei — who was then president — to become the first prime minister. He was rejected by parliament and the post went to Mir Hossein Mousavi, who led the reform-minded Green Movement in the president election in 2009 and is now under house arrest for taking part in massive protests claiming the vote was rigged in favor of Ahmadinejad.

    Under Mousavi’s government the early 1980s, Velayati was appointed foreign minister at a time when Iran’s Islamic rulers were seeking to build new ties with the world. He held the post until 1997 and later became a senior international policy adviser to Khamenei. In a speech earlier this month, Velayati opened the door — just a bit — for better relations with Washington.

    “Iran will … interact with the world, not with those who are expansionist and not those who, like the U.S., rattle sabers against the Islamic Republic,” he said.
    ___
    {{MOHSEN REZAEI:}} Former chief commander of the Revolutionary Guard. Rezaei, 58, ran in 2009, but finished fourth. He currently is secretary of the Expediency Council, which mediates between the parliament and Guardian Council. Rezaei is also charged by Argentina for the Buenos Aires bombing.

    Rezaei was a key member of an underground Islamic guerrilla group fighting the U.S.-backed shah in the 1970s and protecting leaders such Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. After the 1979 Islamic Revolution, Rezaei became chief commander of the Revolutionary Guard near the beginning of the 1980-88 war with Saddam Hussein’s Iraq, which was then backed by Washington.

    After stepping down from the Guard in the mid-1990s, he retained a prominent role as secretary of the Expediency Council, a group that mediates any disputes between the ruling clerics and parliament and serves as an advisory body for Khamenei.

    In late 2011, Rezaei’s son was found dead in a Dubai hotel room. Ahmad Rezaei had spent years in the U.S. as an outspoken critic of Iran’s Islamic rulers, including claiming he had firsthand knowledge about Tehran’s involvement in the Buenos Aires blast. The death was investigated as a suicide, but opened a flood of unsupported speculation in Iran over possible hit squads.
    ___
    {{MOHAMMAD GHARAZI}}: A former oil and telecommunications minister. Gharazi, 71, also served in parliament in the 1980s and ’90s. He is considered conservative and portrays himself as a steady-handed technocrat.

    Gharazi was part of part of the anti-shah forced in exile before the Islamic Revolution. He then joined parliament and was later appointed to the influential position of oil minister. He was named the minister of post in 1985 and held the job until 1997. He later served on the Tehran city council.

    His campaign has focused on Iran’s sanctions-wracked economy.

    “A global definition says that low inflation and high employment figures are what make an administration popular,” he said earlier this month. “Balanced inflation and employment rates are also acceptable. But a high inflation and a low employment rate are the features of an inefficient administration.”

  • Tsvangirai Says won’t agree to July elections

    {{Zimbabwe’s prime minister said Wednesday that he won’t agree to hold elections in July after President Robert Mugabe said he would go ahead with the long-awaited polls.}}

    Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai said that Mugabe cannot decide on an election date without consent from other leaders in the power-sharing government.
    Tsvangirai said any elections held at Mugabe’s behest will not be deemed “legitimate.”

    “It seems they are determined to commit suicide, it is what they want,” he said at a press briefing of civic leaders.

    Mugabe was forced by regional leaders to form a coalition government with former opposition leader Tsvangirai after violent and disputed elections in 2008.

    The nation’s highest court in May ordered Mugabe to hold polls by the end of July, arguing that the elections should be linked to the dissolution of the parliament at the end of its current five-year term on June 29.

    Mugabe has said he will abide by the ruling and hold the vote July 31 despite objections from his partners in the coalition. Tsvangirai has said he wants polls to end the embittered four-year-old coalition in September at the earliest.

    A lawsuit was brought to the court on May 24 to force Mugabe to call early polls. The private court application claimed the country could not be run without the existence of the parliament, rendering the government illegal.

    A new constitution overwhelmingly accepted in a March 16 referendum requires amendments to voters’ lists as well as a 30-day registration of new voters that will end on July 9.

    Tsvangirai claimed the lawsuit was instigated by Mugabe’s ZANU-PF party loyalists eager for early polls so that they can take advantage of loopholes in the electoral laws to rig the vote.

    “That ruling is a political directive which has been given a legal effect, it doesn’t create an environment for a legitimate election” Tsvangirai said.

    {agencies}

  • U.N. chief Appoints Germany’s Martin Kobler as Congo Envoy

    {{U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon appointed former German diplomat Martin Kobler on Monday as his special envoy to the volatile Democratic Republic of Congo, succeeding former U.S. diplomat Roger Meece in July.}}

    Kobler – currently U.N. special envoy in Iraq and previously deputy U.N. representative in Afghanistan – will head a 17,000-strong U.N. peacekeeping mission in Congo, which will shortly include a special intervention brigade of 3,000 troops tasked with neutralizing armed groups in the eastern border region.

    Congo has been battling a year-long insurgency by M23 rebels. U.N. experts accused Rwanda of sending troops and weapons across the border to support the M23 last year. Rwanda denies the accusation.

    Peace talks between the M23 and the Congolese government in Kampala, the capital of neighboring Uganda, have stalled. M23 is mainly made up of a previous Tutsi-dominated rebel group which integrated into the army following a 2009 peace deal.

    But they deserted en masse last year and have stepped up training in their strongholds in preparation for the deployment of the U.N. intervention brigade.

    The U.N. mission in Congo, known as MONUSCO, will also begin using surveillance drones in August to monitor the eastern border – a thickly forested area of rugged terrain with few roads, the United Nations has said.

    Countries in the region signed a peace deal brokered by the United Nations in February to try to end two decades of conflict in eastern Congo.

    reuters