Tag: DR Congo

NOVANEWS AP Arsene Tungali Recent statistics show that for a population of over 70 million, only 4% of the inhabitants are connected to the Internet due to limited infrastructure and high access costs. Government actions such as shutdowns, alongside surveillance and censorship practices, undermine the development of inclusive Internet society in the central African country. In the past seven years, citizens in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) have experienced a series of intentional interruptions to online communications, affecting the exercise of rights to freedom of expression and information as well as access to services. The first shutdown of digital communications reported in DRC was in December 2011. The shutdown affected SMS, and last...

NOVANEWS Congolese women protest during talks between the opposition and the government in the Democratic Republic of Congo's capital Kinshasa, Dec. 31, 2016. | Photo: Reuters. The president has agreed to step down in order to avert political unrest in the country over him staying in power despite his mandate ending. Congo's opposition leaders signed a deal with the party of President Joseph Kabila on Saturday that will require him to step down after elections that must take place before the end of 2017. Mediators from the Congo's Catholic church had been heaping pressure on both sides for weeks to sign an agreement aimed at averting a slide into anarchy and possibly another civil war over Kabila's decision not to step down despite his mandate expiring more than a w...