Rwanda Begins Troop Withdrawl in Eastern DR Congo

Despite anxieties around Rwanda’s military presence in Congo, troops have now begun to leave eastern DRC, five weeks after they crossed the border to attack FDLR Hutu rebels. A ceremony bidding farewell to the Rwandan military took place in Goma today, and...

AFRICOM Fails Its First Test

As one of its principal missions, AFRICOM states that it will offer “the kind of support that will enable African governments and existing regional organizations… to have greater capacity to provide security and respond in times of need.”...

Declaration of Religous Summit on LRA Issue

Last week, Caritas reported on the first-ever gathering of religious leaders from the numerous communities affected by the continued aggression of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), a gathering focused on finding a regional solution to the violence. This three-day...

Vulture Funds: Ugly Name for an Ugly Reality

Vulture funds, often called “Distressed Debt Funds” are predatory hedge funds that siphon off newly freed resources from poor-country debt cancellation efforts.  They do this by buying up a poor country’s debt in default for pennies on the dollar and then engaging...

‘Greetings’ in Burundian Culture

Hearing Burundians greet each other and greet us in Kirundi got me curious about finding out the meaning of these daily greeting rituals. The finding is, astonishingly, a good ground on which Burundians can build bridges of reconciliation and recovery from the hurt...