Botswana: Pirates threaten fishing industry

Illegal fishing in Lake Ngami is a threat to species and local livelihoods and any move against it could spark conflict with Zambia and the DRC, reports Lawrence Seretse

The Global Citizen Journalist: Eric Mwamba profile

If you are reading this on a mobile phone, lap top or tablet, chances are that some of its parts came from journalist Eric Mwamba’s home country of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

By Lyndal Rowlands, Right Now (Australia) January 31, 2014

Inside Congo: The politics of betrayal and proxy rebel factions

As the United Nations Group of Experts implicated Rwanda and later on Uganda, the world especially the Western world reacted with tough actions suspending aid to the tiny Central African nation, which many agrees has recovered so quickly from the 1994 genocide.

By Richard Mgamba, The Guardian on Sunday, Tanzania

DRC: Taking The Conflict Out of Congo’s Tin

By Fiona Lloyd-Davies, for the Pulitzer Center, 13 May 2013 — At the top of a mountain, deep in the rock face, men are mining for cassiterite with the most basic of tools – a hammer and chisel. They’re artisanal miners at Kalimbi, a mine in South Kivu, Eastern Congo, that produces tin ore.

Post-Ntaganda, DRC finds itself still in the same old mess

Is the arrest of long-wanted warlord General Bosco Ntaganda a beacon of hope for the Democratic Republic of Congo? RNW  blogger in Rwanda thinks not. 

Source: RNW Africa Desk, 14 April 2013, By Sunny Ntayombya*

Getting Rich in Poverty-stricken Congo

Congolese-Australian journalist Eric Mwamba went on a search to find the secret behind the riches of the Congolese elite.  Many of his witnesses prefered staying anonymous for fear of their lives – which looks like a kind of Congolese omerta. John Vandaele selected Mwamba’s strongest observations and added some personal touches.

Lunch with M23 rebels: 180 minutes inside Congo’s war zone

It was seven days before Christmas eve, the period in which Christians all over the world are busy with shopping and planning for the celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ, but to me it was a scary and memorable day — the day I chatted and lunched with M23 rebels’ top commander, General Sultan Emanuel Makenga, a 39-year-old soldier, who has fought three different wars in three different countries of Uganda, Rwanda and Congo, but still willing to fight till his last blood.

Regional Leaders Decide On Congo Crisis

Munyonyo, Kampala, 25 Nov – President Yoweri Museveni on Saturday closed the 5th Extraordinary Summit of the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR) which took place at Speke Resort Munyonyo in Kampala.

Accusation and Denials on DRC: UN versus Uganda and Rwanda

Uganda and Rwanda continue to meddle in the Democratic Republic of Congo civil war despite aid sanctions and appeals from the International community, a new United Nations investigation has revealed.

East Africa Conference: Going beyond the veil of secrecy using public data

Investigative journalism distinguishes itself from regular journalism by its depth and by a rigorous research process that never merely describes issues or events, but seeks to better serve the public by getting answers to the key questions of ‘why?’ and ‘how?’

Call for papers: Investigating Extractive Industries / Chamada de trabalhos: Investigando Indústrias Extractivas

FAIR will host a southern Africa regional conference on “Investigating Extractive Industries” during 13-15 August 2012 in Lusaka, Zambia.

Five things you need to know about coltan

1. It’s used by almost everybody — in mobile phones, electric cars and a wide array of consumer electronic devices; it is in optical and medical equipment. As new technologies emerge and produce new devices, demand will grow. There is no ready substitute.