First Independent Mena Newspaper
Former President of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Joseph Kabila, has been sentenced to death in absentia by a military court on charges of treason, war crimes, and conspiracy linked to the brutal M23 rebellion in the country’s east. The verdict, delivered Tuesday (30 September) in Kinshasa, marks a dramatic fall from grace for […]
Former President Joseph Kabila is facing the death penalty in a dramatic trial unfolding in absentia, as Congo’s military prosecutor accuses him of treason, war crimes, and backing the Rwanda-aligned M23 rebel group that has overrun eastern regions of the country. Kabila, who ruled the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) from 2001 to 2019, is […]
The International Criminal Court (ICC) has sentenced former Central African Republic (CAR) football chief Patrice-Edouard Ngaïssona to 12 years in prison for 28 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed during the country’s 2013–2014 civil war. His co-accused, former MP and militia commander Alfred “Rambo” Yekatom, received a 15-year sentence for 20 counts, […]
A recent U.S. deportation of five convicted foreign nationals to the African kingdom of Eswatini has ignited outrage among human rights groups and African leaders. The individuals — originally from Vietnam, Jamaica, Cuba, Yemen, and Laos — were expelled after their home countries refused to accept them. All five have serious criminal convictions, including murder […]
The Trump administration has completed the controversial deportation of eight men to South Sudan, a nation the U.S. government warns its own citizens not to enter due to ongoing violence, armed conflict, and human rights abuses. The deportees, nationals of Cuba, Laos, Mexico, Myanmar, Vietnam, and South Sudan, were convicted of serious crimes, including murder […]
Belgian prosecutors have announced on Tuesday, June 17 their intention to prosecute 92-year-old former diplomat Etienne Davignon for alleged involvement in the 1961 assassination of Congolese independence leader Patrice Lumumba. Davignon is the sole surviving member of a group of ten Belgians named in a 2011 lawsuit by Lumumba’s children, who accused them of complicity […]
Sierra Leone’s president Julius Maada Bio has fired Alusine Kanneh, the country’s head of immigration, following the publication of a video showing Kanneh with Johannes Leijdekkers, a notorious Dutch drug kingpin. The footage, which emerged on 7 March, shows Kanneh receiving a birthday gift from Leijdekkers, who is wanted across Europe for drug trafficking and […]
Trials of Congolese soldiers accused of desertion, murder, and looting shed light on a military grappling with poor morale and dysfunction, amid ongoing rebel advances in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). In recent court proceedings, over 300 soldiers have stood trial, with some facing death sentences for fleeing the frontlines as M23 rebels, […]
Human rights advocates and local politicians in the Central African Republic (CAR) have accused Russia-backed mercenaries for being behind the disappearance of two soldiers, amid a mountain evidence pointing to crimes, including murder, torture, execution, abductions, rape, theft, that are credibly linked to Wagner forces and their successor entities. The two soldiers, ,Celestin Bakoyo and […]
Five soldiers, among nine people suspected for the murder a local mayor, have been detained after appearing Tuesday January 23 before a court, local media in Madagascar reports. The soldiers from Security Support Detachment of Ankazobe municipality have been sent to the main incarceration Center of the country, Tsiafahy. Five other people, all civilians, among […]