Monday, January 19, 2015 - Security forces fired live rounds and tear gas in clashes with rock-throwing protesters in Democratic Republic of Congo's capital on Monday as opposition parties tried to block a change in the law that may delay elections due in 2016. Read more

Dear Secretary of State Kerry

President Obama said "Africa doesn't need strongmen; it needs strong institutions."

We urge the U.S. government to stop financing, arming, training, and providing diplomatic cover for strongmen in Africa such as Yoweri Museveni of Uganda and Paul Kagame of Rwanda, both of whom continue to destabilize the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). We implore you to implement section 105 of Public Law 109-456 that calls for the U.S. to withhold aid from neighboring countries destabilizing the DRC.

We encourage you to increase support for civil society, non-violent pro-democracy forces, and strong institutions in the  DRC as outlined in section 102 of the same law, which was sponsored by then Senator Obama and co-sponsored by you and Hillary Clinton.

Thank you for making the DRC a priority! Click here to request postcards!

January 2015

Join Friends of the Congo as we engage local communities in Congo Week follow-up. Participate in teach-ins, film screenings, forums and more with members of the Friends of the Congo Team.

Click here to join the global movement and be a part of Congo Week Follow-up.

On October 1, 2010, the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights published the official report on the United Nations Mapping Exercise, which documents atrocities, human rights abuses and crimes against humanity committed in the Congo from 1993 - 2003. The report was delayed by a month due to a leaked version that indicated that the Rwanda Patriotic Front might have committed genocide in the Congo.

The UN delayed the publishing of the report to give governments implicated in the atrocities more time to comment on the report, especially Rwanda who rejected the notion that it may have committed genocide in the Congo.

Visit the FOTC UN Mapping Exercise Report resource center to download the report, read comments from the governments named in the report, read the latest news and analysis, watch and listen to interviews and read responses from figures such as Bill Clinton and institutions such as Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Doctors Without Borders, and Global Witness. Not so surprisingly, the genocide prevention institutions in Washington have been remarkably silent on the contents of the report and the call by the Congolese people for justice. more>>