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The president of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Félix Tshisekedi, has reached out directly to President Donald J. Trump with a historic proposal: help defeat a brutal rebel force terrorizing his nation, and in return, America will gain direct access to one of the world’s richest untapped troves of critical minerals—worth an estimated $24 trillion. According to a letter obtained by The Wall Street Journal, President Tshisekedi offered Trump exclusive mining opportunities through the newly launched U.S. Sovereign Wealth Fund, a Trump-led initiative aimed at reshaping global investment through pro-American partnerships. “Your election has ushered in the golden age...

Horrifying details of atrocities are continuing to emerge from the Democratic Republic of the Congo 12 days after the Rwandan-backed armed group, M23, seized the eastern city of Goma. Nearly 3,000 people have been killed in the fighting - around 2,000 bodies are still to be buried. As rebels entered the city, Goma’s Munzenze prison became a centre of the violence. It was set on fire, prisoners were burnt alive - and thousands escaped. The UN says female prisoners were raped by male prisoners.

A prominent Obama administration trade advisor is one of the central players in a series of scandals and ethical rows that have reportedly placed him in cahoots with corrupt Congolese warlords and other questionable figures. Kase Lawal, an oil mogul with longstanding ties to the Clinton family, was appointed in 2010 as a member of Obama’s Advisory Committee for Trade Policy and Negotiations. Since his selection to the trade board, Lawal has become enmeshed in a pact to purchase large quantities of illegal gold from a violent Congolese warlord, according to a U.N. investigation and various reports. The crooked gold...

BUKAVU, Congo — Rwanda-backed rebels have "occupied" a second major city in mineral-rich eastern Congo, Congo's government said Sunday, as M23 rebels positioned themselves at the governor's office in Bukavu and pledged to clean up after the "old regime." Associated Press journalists witnessed scores of residents cheering on the rebels after they entered Bukavu following a dayslong march from Goma, a city of 2 million people they seized last month. The rebels saw little resistance from government forces against the unprecedented expansion of their reach after their years of fighting. Congo's government vowed to restore order in Bukavu, a city...

More than 150 female prisoners were raped and burned to death during a jailbreak last week when fleeing male inmates set fire to a prison in Goma, in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, a United Nations spokesperson has said. UN Human Rights Office spokesperson Seif Magango told CNN that most of the 165 female prisoners who were raped by escaping male inmates died in the fire. Between nine and 13 female inmates, “all of whom had also been raped,” survived the blaze, Magango added, citing a judicial source in the DRC. “We did not independently verify the judicial official’s...

More than 100 female prisoners were raped and then burned alive during a jailbreak in the Congolese city of Goma, according to the UN. Hundreds of prisoners broke out of Munzenze prison last Monday, after fighters from the M23 rebel group began to take over the city. Between 165 and 167 women were assaulted by male inmates during the jailbreak, an internal UN document seen by the BBC says. The report states that most of the women were killed after the inmates set fire to the prison. The BBC has not been able to verify the reports. SNIP

It has been a humiliating week for nearly 300 Romanian mercenaries recruited to fight on the side of the army in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Their surrender following a rebel assault on the eastern city of Goma has also shattered the dreams of those who signed up for the job to earn big money. The BBC has seen contracts that show that these hired soldiers were being paid around $5,000 (£4,000) a month, while regular military recruits get around $100, or sometimes go unpaid. The Romanians were contracted to help the army fight the Rwanda-backed M23 rebels, who say...

GOMA, Democratic Republic of Congo, Jan 28 (Reuters) - Dead bodies lay in the streets, gunfire rang out and hospitals were overwhelmed in east Congo's largest city Goma where M23 rebels backed by Rwanda faced pockets of resistance on Tuesday from army and pro-government militias. A day after the rebels marched into the lakeside city, protesters in the capital attacked a U.N. compound and embassies including those of Rwanda, France and the United States, expressing anger at what they said was foreign interference.

KAMPALA, Uganda At least 1,700 Congolese M23 rebels, including the top commander, have surrendered to Ugandan authorities following their defeat by Congolese troops, a Ugandan military official said Thursday. Gen. Sultani Makenga, M23's military commander, and his fighters were being held by the Ugandan military in Mgahinga, a forested area near the Congo border, the official said. The rebels had been disarmed and were being registered by Ugandan officials, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to give this information. This week the rebels lost control of all the territory they once held...

Rebels in the Democratic Republic of the Congo are threatening to retake the eastern city of Goma if their demands aren't met, less than one week after the United Nations called for them to turn in their weapons or risk forceful intervention from UN peacekeeping forces. The rebel group M23 is a reincarnation of older insurgent movements, and just one of dozens of militias in the region. It takes its name from a March 23 peace agreement that saw the rebels' absorption into the chronically weak Congolese army in 2009. The group consists mainly of Congolese nationals from the Tutsi...

Explanation: This fifteen degree wide field of view stretches across the crowded starfields of Sagittarius toward the center of our Milky Way galaxy. In fact, the center of the galaxy lies near the right edge of the rich starscape and eleven bright star clusters and nebulae fall near the center of the frame. All eleven are numbered entries in the catalog compiled by 18th century cosmic tourist Charles Messier. Gaining celebrity status with skygazers, M8 (Lagoon), M16 (Eagle), M17 (Omega), and M20 (Trifid) show off the telltale reddish hues of emission nebulae associated with star forming regions. But also eye-catching...

UN peacekeepers in the Congo were drawn into a gun battle between unidentified gunmen and the M23 rebel group today and shot four of the attackers, a UN spokesman said. About 30 unidentified people assaulted an M23 rebel position early today five miles (eight kilometres) from Goma in Congo's North Kivu province, spokesman Martin Nesirky said. The M23 rebels counter-attacked, and as the assailants retreated they fired shots at the UN peacekeepers' post, Nesirky said.

(Reuters) - Eastern Congo's most powerful warlord stands on a hillside, surrounded by heavily armed fighters, and gazes down on the sprawling lakeside city of Goma spread invitingly below him in the distance. ... "The government can't beat us. They have no choice but to negotiate," says the lean, 39-year-old veteran of several revolts in mineral-rich eastern Congo. "We're waiting for the negotiations in Kampala." M23 launched its rebellion in Congo's beautiful but war-torn eastern borderlands more than a year ago. Hundreds of former rebels who had been integrated into the army - veterans, like Makenga, of a previous Tutsi...

Rwanda's president, Paul Kagame, has rejected accusations from Washington that he was supporting a rebel leader and accused war criminal in the Democratic Republic of the Congo by challenging a senior US official to send a drone to kill the wanted man. ... "I told him: 'Assistant secretary of state, you support [the UN peacekeeping force] in the Congo. Such a big force, so much money. Have you failed to use that force to arrest whoever you want to arrest in Congo? Now you are turning to me, you are turning to Rwanda?'" he said. "I said that, since you...

KINSHASA (Reuters) - United Nations attack helicopters hit rebel positions in eastern Congo on Saturday after insurgents gained ground in heavy fighting with government troops, the U.N. said. The clashes to the south of the town Kibumba mean the rebels have advanced to within 30 km (18 miles) of Goma, the closest they have been to North Kivu's provincial capital since a rebellion exploded in the eastern provinces eight months ago. North Kivu governor Julien Paluku said the army retreated to the southern outskirts of the town after M23 rebels - a group of soldiers who mutinied in April -...