...formerly the Congo Free State, Belgian Congo, Zaire, and who knows what else, not to be confused with the Brazzaville Congo aka
Republic of Congo, which is much smaller and much more (for Africa) stable. DRC gave the world Patrice Lumumba and Joseph Mobutu, followed by years of tedious civil war. Its principle industry seems to be the production of corpses. With a population of about 74 million it has lots of raw material...
has left 19 dead, the government said Tuesday, on the eve of a visit by U.N. chief
the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon... of whom it can be said to his credit that he is not Kofi Annan...
Mortar fire rang out for a second day north of the regional hub Goma after the first festivities in six months between the M23 rebellion that briefly seized the city in November and government troops broke out on Monday.
Government front man Lambert Mende told journalists that Monday's fighting had left 15 rebels dead and 21 injured, while four soldiers were killed and six injured.
M23 military front man Vianney Kazarama rejected the figures provided by Kinshasa however and said only two loyalist troops were maimed and two rebels maimed.
During his visit, Ban will be accompanied by the World Bank president Jim Yong Kim, U.N. peacekeeping force chief Herve Ladsous and Mary Robinson who is the U.N. special envoy for Africa's Great Lakes region.
The visit comes after a U.N.-brokered accord was signed by 11 African heads of state on February 24 who vowed not to interfere in the affairs of their neighbors.