EU’s next enlargement could redefine Europe’s energy security and competitiveness
The European Union’s next wave of enlargement, particularly involving candidate countries across Central and Eastern Europe, could prove decisive fo...
Bukavu remained calm after M23 rebels, allegedly backed by Rwanda, moved into the eastern Congolese city with little resistance from government forces. The situation has raised fears of a wider regional conflict and potential impacts on DR Congo's vital mineral exports.
Bukavu was quiet on Sunday as M23 rebels, allegedly supported by Rwanda, entered the eastern Congolese city with minimal resistance from government troops, according to eyewitnesses and statements from the rebel group.
The Congolese government accused Rwanda of ignoring calls for a ceasefire but did not confirm whether M23 had fully taken control of Bukavu.
Rwanda rejects allegations from Democratic Republic of Congo, the United Nations, and Western powers that thousands of its troops are fighting alongside the Tutsi-led M23. It says it is defending itself against the threat from a Hutu militia, which it says is fighting with the Congolese military.
While the situation appeared largely calm, verified footage showed smoke rising from Bukavu's central prison.
Congolese troops have withdrawn from the city to avoid fighting in densely populated areas, South Kivu Governor Jean-Jacques Purusi told Reuters in a message, in which he also confirmed M23's arrival in Bukavu.
"They're in my residence already ... and my office," he said, adding that he and his team were safe elsewhere.
The gradual departure of Congolese and allied Burundian troops from Bukavu in recent days led to a power vacuum, triggering looting and a prison break on Saturday.
Since capturing Goma in late January, the rebels targeted Bukavu, a key commercial hub.
The group's recent gains in North and South Kivu provinces mean it has captured more territory than all other rebellions since the end of two major wars that ran from 1996 to 2003. These advances have also handed them control of some of the region's valuable mineral deposits.
DR Congo is the world’s leading cobalt producer and is a major copper supplier but faces growing concerns of the conflict's impact on crucial mineral exports.
The rebels' rapid advance this year, along with the involvement of troops from nearby countries, has raised fears of a regional conflict. These concerns are linked to old disputes over power, identity, and resources dating back to the 1990s Rwandan genocide.
The insurgency has deepened an already dire humanitarian crisis in eastern provinces. The "rapidly deteriorating" situation has left about 350,000 displaced people with no roof over their heads, the U.N. refugee agency warned on Friday.
The well-equipped M23 is the latest in a long line of ethnic Tutsi-led rebel movements to emerge in Congo's volatile east. It denies Congo's allegations it is a Rwandan proxy.
Video from the USGS (United States Geological Survey) showed on Friday (19 September) the Kilauea volcano in Hawaii erupting and spewing lava.
At least 69 people have died and almost 150 injured following a powerful 6.9-magnitude earthquake off the coast of Cebu City in the central Visayas region of the Philippines, officials said, making it one of the country’s deadliest disasters this year.
Authorities in California have identified the dismembered body discovered in a Tesla registered to singer D4vd as 15-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez, who had been missing from Lake Elsinore since April 2024.
A tsunami threat was issued in Chile after a magnitude 7.8 earthquake struck the Drake Passage on Friday. The epicenter was located 135 miles south of Puerto Williams on the north coast of Navarino Island.
The war in Ukraine has reached a strategic impasse, and it seems that the conflict will not be solved by military means. This creates a path toward one of two alternatives: either a “frozen” phase that can last indefinitely or a quest for a durable political regulation.
The European Union’s next wave of enlargement, particularly involving candidate countries across Central and Eastern Europe, could prove decisive for the continent’s energy security and competitiveness.
Police in China detained dozens of pastors of one of its largest underground churches over the weekend, a church spokesperson and relatives said, in the biggest crackdown on Christians since 2018.
An explosion at a farmhouse in northern Italy during a police raid killed three Carabinieri officers and injured 12 others, Italy's fire service said on X on Tuesday.
Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) said on Tuesday it had opened a criminal case against exiled Kremlin critic Mikhail Khodorkovsky, accusing him of creating a "terrorist organisation" and of plotting to violently seize power.
Global warming is crossing dangerous thresholds sooner than expected with the world’s coral reefs now in an almost irreversible die-off, marking what scientists on Monday described as the first “tipping point” in climate-driven ecosystem collapse.
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