Tag: A la Une

– Some 60,000 Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) nationals have returned over the past month from neighbouring Republic of Congo (RoC) as a result of actual or threatened deportation in an operation that has cost several policemen their jobs because of brutality. On 6 May alone, some 2,600 made the journey by boat.

Brazzaville initiated the operation on 3 April, targeting criminals and undocumented migrants. Because it lies just across the Congo river, DRC accounts for the great majority of foreigners living in RoC. Up to 600,000 live there, working for the most part in menial jobs such as hawkers, rubbish collectors, drivers, and domestic workers.

According to a policeman stationed at Ngobila Beach, on the DRC side of the river, some of those packed into ferries bringing up to 4,000 people across from RoC each day claim to have valid residency permits; several said their papers had been burned or torn up by RoC police during the operation.

Voice of the Voiceless, one of DRC’s leading NGOs, has denounced the “cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment” meted out, even to DRC citizens whose residency paperwork was in order but who were still subjected to “barbaric expulsion”.

Bruises and wounds are common among the new arrivals, even women, according to a Red Cross official working in a mobile clinic on Ngobila Beach. The official said in late April two women had given birth during the short river crossing.

“There was a boy whose throat was swollen, as if someone had tried to strangle him. The police had beaten him badly, taken his money and phone. Another boy had a hot iron applied to his back and stomach,” said the official.

Police officials in Brazzaville conceded that there had been excesses in the early stages of the operation and have announced that 17 officers have been sacked as a result.

High-level delegations from Kinshasa visited the neighbouring capital to “protest against all illegal expulsions of, and human rights violations against, our compatriots,” according to the minutes of a recent cabinet meeting.

DRC government spokesman Lambert Mende, citing sources in Brazzaville, said just 1,000 of those who had returned had been formally deported. “It’s not impossible that many left anticipating a forceful expulsion.”

The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) “is in touch with authorities in the RoC, including the police service, to prevent refugees and asylum seekers from DRC and other countries being expelled,” said UNHCR regional spokeswoman Celine Schmitt.

Discrimination, insults

Some of those arriving in Kinshasa said they had suffered discrimination, insults and distrust.

“It was fear that led me to come back,” said Carole, a 33-year-old trader among the returnees.

She explained that while at the start of the operation police violence had led people to flee hastily, taking nothing with them, things had changed and people were now arriving with luggage, as long as they could afford to pay for its transport.

Those arriving at Ngobila Beach are bussed to a now crowded sports stadium and the grounds of Kinshasa town hall, where food and water are distributed.

“We’re seeing cases of malaria, diarrhoea, headaches and children showing signs of malnutrition,” said Doris Muyembe, who heads the Red Cross in Kinshasa.
“It is difficult to take care of everybody because we need more supplies; medicines aren’t available,” he added.

According to the Red Cross, half of the returnees originate from Equateur Province, 20 percent from Bas-Congo, 20 percent from Kinshasa, and the remainder from other parts of the vast country. Some have returned using buses hired by the government, others made their own way.

Finding work is the top concern of those coming back. Some have called on the government to establish programmes to allow them to earn a decent living in their home country, so they will have no need to go abroad again.

Kengo wa Dongo porteur d’un message de Kabila à Sassou

L’opération de refoulement du territoire congolais des ressortissants étrangers en situation irrégulière, dénommée « Mbata ya Bakolo » (en français : la gifle des ainés) lancée à Brazzaville au début du mois d’avril 2014, et étendue par la suite aux autres localités, fait aujourd’hui l’objet de tensions sociales insoutenables entre Kinshasa et Brazzaville, les deux capitales les plus proches au monde.

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— Details emerged Wednesday of an apparent Boko Haram attack on a Nigerian village in which at least 150 people died, the latest in a series of attacks and abductions of schoolgirls attributed to the group.

Militants dressed in military uniforms, backed by armored personnel carriers and shouting “God is great” attacked Gamboru Ngala Monday afternoon, firing rocket-propelled grenades and tossing improvised bombs into a crowded outdoor marketplace, witnesses told CNN Wednesday.

They then set fire to buildings where people had tried to take shelter from the violence, the witnesses said.

 

Malala: ‘Girls in Nigeria are my sisters’

The fighters also attacked the police station during the 12-hour assault, initially facing stiff resistance. They eventually used explosives to blow the roof off the building, witnesses said. Fourteen police officers were found dead inside, they said.

 

Reporter: Uncle was kidnapped in Nigeria

 

Anger grows over 200 missing girls

 

Obama: ‘This is a terrible situation’

The final death toll could be closer to 300, Nigerian Sen. Ahmed Zanna told CNN.

It’s unclear what impact the attack could have on the international response to Nigeria’s fight with Boko Haram, which so far has been concentrated on helping the government rescue 276 schoolgirls abducted last month by the militant group.

Nigerian authorities have blamed the group for dozens of deadly attacks in the country’s north.

They offered a reward of about $310,000 Wednesday for information leading to the rescue of the girls.

“While calling on the general public to be part of the solution to the present security challenge, the Police High Command also reassures all citizens that any information given would be treated anonymously and with utmost confidentiality,” the Nigeria Police Force said in a statement.

The government also has accepted U.S. and British offers of assistance, officials with those governments said.

International aid taking shape

U.S. officials will establish a “coordination cell” to provide intelligence, investigations and hostage negotiation expertise, U.S. State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said. The cell will include U.S. military personnel, she said.

The joint coordination cell will be established at the U.S. Embassy in the Nigerian capital, Abuja, and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said the work is expected to begin immediately.

The Pentagon has started planning for how it can help Nigeria, a senior U.S. military official told CNN. U.S. military assistance will likely be limited to intelligence, mission planning and hostage negotiations, several officials told CNN. It’s unlikely at this point that U.S. troops would be involved in operations, the officials said.

British officials will send a small team of experts to complement the U.S. team, a spokesman for Prime Minister David Cameron said Wednesday. The spokesman didn’t specify the nature of the team’s expertise.

Defending the response

President Goodluck Jonathan has come under fire after waiting three weeks to publicly acknowledge the kidnappings.

His administration, however, is defending its response — even as details emerged Tuesday about a second mass kidnapping.

“The President and the government (are) not taking this as easy as people all over the world think,” said presidential spokesman Doyin Okupe.

“We’ve done a lot, but we are not talking about it. We’re not Americans. We’re not showing people, you know, but it does not mean that we are not doing something,” Okupe said.

The presidential spokesman said helicopters and planes have searched for the girls in 250 locations. More troops, he said, are on the way.

Despite the flurry of activity, the father of two of the schoolgirls taken by Boko Haram scoffed at the Nigerian government’s response.

 Map: Where the girls were kidnapped

Map: Where the girls were kidnapped

 

US offering help for kidnapped girls

“We have never seen any military man there,” said the father, who is not being identified for fear of reprisals by the government or Boko Haram.

“Had it been military men who went into the bush to rescue our daughters, we would have seen them.”

Another mass abduction

But even as the help was offered to Jonathan, new details were emerging about the abduction of at least eight girls between the ages of 12 and 15, who were snatched Sunday night from the village of Warabe.

The village is in the rural northeast, near the border with Cameroon, an area considered a stronghold for Boko Haram. U.S. officials say the group has received training from al Qaeda affiliates.

Villagers in Warabe told CNN that gunmen moved from door to door late Sunday, snatching the girls and beating anybody who tried to stop them.

The latest abductions come amid international outcry over the April 14 kidnapping of more than 200 girls. According to accounts, armed members of Boko Haram overpowered security guards at an all-girls school in Chibok, yanked the girls out of bed and forced them into trucks. The convoy of trucks then disappeared into the dense forest bordering Cameroon.

‘Western education is sin’

Boko Haram translates to “Western education is sin” in the local Hausa language, and the group has said its aim is to impose a stricter enforcement of Sharia law across Africa’s most populous nation, which is split between a majority Muslim north and a mostly Christian south.

The United States has branded Boko Haram a terror organization and has put a $7 million bounty on the group’s elusive leader, Abubakar Shekau.

In recent years, the group has stepped up its attacks, bombing schools, churches and mosques.

But it is the abductions of girls that have spawned the biggest outrage, with a #BringBackOurGirls campaign that initially began on Twitter and then quickly spread with demonstrators taking to the streets over the weekend in major cities around the world to demand action.

6 reasons why the world should care

‘I abducted your girls’

A man claiming to be Shekau appeared in a video announcing he would sell his victims. The video was first obtained Monday by Agence-France Presse.

“I abducted your girls. I will sell them in the market, by Allah,” he said. “There is a market for selling humans. Allah says I should sell. He commands me to sell. I will sell women. I sell women.”

In the United States, all 20 women serving in the Senate signed a bipartisan letter calling on Obama to take action.

“More can be done by this administration. I would like to see special forces deployed to help rescue these young girls. Some of these girls are as young as 9 years old,” Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine told CNN. “…They’re being sold into slavery, forced into marriages, required to convert. This is just horrible.”

More than 400,000 people, including celebrities and lawmakers, to date have signed a change.org petition that calls upon the world to act to save the girls.

The petition calls on Jonathan and the government “to ensure all schools are safe places to learn, protected from attack.”

‘You can never rule out surprise’

Nigerian Minister of Information Labaran Maku told CNN that despite international reaction and media reports, there have been some successes in combating Boko Haram.

But when asked about bombings in Abuja, which came the same day as the mass abduction of schoolgirls, he said: “In the case of insurgency and guerrilla warfare, you can never rule out surprise here and there.”

He also declined to agree that misinformation released by the military after the April kidnapping added to the growing outrage.

First, the military said all the girls had been released or rescued. But after the girls’ families began asking where their daughters were, the military retracted the statement.

“When they made that statement, it was based on a report they received,” the minister said.

( CNN)

-Le gouvernement conservateur, qui avait fait de l’expulsion de criminels étrangers une promesse électorale, a commencé, il y a dizaine de jours, à la mettre à exécution en renvoyant des Congolais dans leur pays d’origine, qui risquent la mort, selon leurs avocats.

Certains sont des criminels de droit commun, d’autres sont d’anciens fonctionnaires accusés de complicité de crimes contre l’humanité.

L’avocat de l’un d’entre eux s’inquiète de ce qui les attend à leur arrivée au Congo.

« Je pense qu’il y a une limite à ne pas franchir et dans ce cas-là, le gouvernement, malheureusement, vient de franchir cette limite-là », estime l’avocat en droit de l’immigration et extradition, Stéphane Handfield.

Plusieurs de ses clients ont été expulsés récemment vers le Congo, et d’autres le seront prochainement. Même s’il reconnaît que certains d’entre eux ne sont pas des anges, selon lui, le Canada commet une grave erreur.

Le président de la Communauté congolaise de Montréal Jean Marie Mousenga

« Je ne crois pas qu’on puisse se permettre de collaborer avec un gouvernement qui est jugé par la communauté internationale comme un gouvernement qui ne respecte pas les droits de la personne, qui torture, qui exécute de façon extrajudiciaire sa population, ses opposants politiques », souligne Me Handfield.

Le président de la Communauté congolaise de Montréal Jean Marie Mousenga rappelle que le Congo d’aujourd’hui est toujours un pays violent, antidémocratique et qui maltraite les opposants politiques.

L’avocat Stewart Istvanffy partage son inquiétude et s’interroge sur le sort qui attend les deux anciens fonctionnaires qu’il représente.

« Pour les deux dont on discute, la mort. Ils sont très connus, ils ont été très forts dans l’opposition ici et le premier, c’est sûr qu’il ne dépasse pas l’aéroport. Le deuxième, sa sœur est morte en 2006, son neveu est mort à la fin 2012, et il est très connu par du régime là-bas. C’est vraiment le pire qui les attend si on était pour les déporter. »

Dans une réponse écrite, l’Agence des services frontaliers du Canada explique que « la décision de renvoyer une personne du Canada n’est pas prise à la légère », que les personnes visées ont des recours, mais que, lorsque ceux-ci seront épuisés, les ordres d’expulsion seront « exécutés le plus tôt possible ».

En tout, plus d’une trentaine de Congolais font l’objet d’un ordre d’expulsion.

-Le président de la République démocratique du Congo, Joseph Kabila, doit respecter la Constitution de son pays qui lui interdit de briguer un nouveau mandat en 2016, a déclaré dimanche à Kinshasa le secrétaire d’Etat américain John Kerry.

“Je crois que [le président Kabila] a clairement en tête le fait que les Etats-Unis d’Amérique sont intimement convaincus [. . . ] que le processus constitutionnel doit être respecté”, a déclaré le ministre des Affaires étrangères américain, John Kerry à l’issue d’une rencontre avec le président congolais.

-Kinshasa a rendu public mercredi une liste de 100 nouveaux amnistiés. On y trouve notamment des adeptes du mouvement politico-religieux Bundi dia Kongo, des ex-M23, des miliciens Kata Katanga et des proches de Diomi Ndongala.

C’est la “deuxième vague des personnes bénéficiaires de la loi d’amnistie” en RDC. Le 30 avril, le gouvernement congolais a publié une liste de 100 nouveaux amnistiés, parmi lesquels 25 miliciens séparatistes Kata Katanga, 10 adeptes du mouvement politico-religieux Bundi dia Kongo, 5 ex-rebelles du Mouvement du 23-Mars (M23), le groupe dit “Imperium” constitué de proches de l’opposant Diomi Ndongala, mais aussi l’ancien député Muhindo Nzangi, qui avait été condamné en août 2013 à trois ans de prison pour offenses au chef de l’État.

Une première liste d’amnistiés reprenant quelque 50 noms avait été publiée le 19 avril par le ministère de la Justice. “Il n’y a donc pas lieu de désespérer car des listes d’amnistiés continueront à être publiées au fur et à mesure que les actes d’engagement des personnes éligibles à ce pardon de la nation parviendront à qui de droit”, a rassuré mercredi Lambert Mende, le porte-parole du gouvernement congolais, soulignant que “même pour les auteurs de crimes graves non couverts par la loi d’amnistie, le président [Joseph Kabila] et le gouvernement préfèrent les voir revenir eux aussi dans leur pays pour pouvoir s’expliquer, se justifier dans le respect du principe de la présomption d’innocence”.

Makenga, Lumbala et colonel Tshibangu non amnistiables

Dans ce dernier lot, on retrouve entre autres le député déchu Roger Lumbala, qui n’est plus retourné au pays depuis septembre 2012. L’opposant qui se réclame “fidèle à Étienne Tshisekedi” est “non amnistiable”, a réaffirmé, le 30 avril à Jeune Afrique, le porte-parole du gouvernement congolais. On le soupçonnerait d’avoir été complice de “recrutement d’enfants soldats” lors de l’insurrection du colonel déserteur John Tshibangu. Un crime exclu du champ de l’amnistie. “Mais s’il estime qu’il n’y est pour rien, le gouvernement l’encourage alors à rentrer au pays pour se défendre devant la justice”, ajoute Lambert Mende.

Mais, dans cette “deuxième vague” de personnes amnistiées, on retrouve sept personnes impliquées dans le mouvement insurrectionnel du colonel John Tshibangu. De quoi rassurer Roger Lumbala. “Si on amnistie les personnes qui sont accusées d’avoir été avec nous, pourquoi nous ne serions pas amnistiables”, s’interroge-t-il, “confiant” de la suite des événements. Selon lui, tout ne serait qu’une question de temps. “Une fois que j’aurai rempli le formulaire [acte d’engagement à ne plus récidiver], tout sera réglé”, répète-t-il.

“Il peut toujours rêver”, lui rétorque Lambert Mende qui rappelle que “même dans le M23, il y a des personnes amnistiables et d’autres qui ne le sont pas pour avoir commis des crimes graves, à l’instar de Sultani Makenga”, l’ancien chef de la rébellion. “Il en est de même de John Tshibangu et de Roger Lumbala que la justice accuse d’avoir été en première ligne dans la commission de certains crimes graves qui ne sont pas amnistiables”, martèle le ministre.

Jeune Afrique