Republic of Congo

KINSHASA (Reuters) - Four unidentified bodies have been found in Congo amid the wreckage of a plane that had been carrying staff of Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi, the government said on Tuesday.

The cargo plane, believed to have been carrying around eight passengers and crew, crashed last Thursday in Democratic Republic of Congo’s central province of Sankuru.

The Antonov An-72 transport aircraft, which was operated by the air force on behalf of the presidency, was flying to the capital Kinshasa in the west of the country when it came down near the town of Kole.

KINSHASA (Reuters) - A former Congolese health minister was taken into custody on Saturday over alleged mismanagement of funds for the country’s response to the Ebola epidemic, police said.

Oly Ilunga oversaw Democratic Republic of Congo’s handling of the outbreak, the second deadliest in history, for nearly a year. He was stripped by the presidency of that responsibility in July and resigned from the government days later.

KINSHASA, Congo (AP) — A second person died Wednesday of Ebola in Congo’s major crossroads city of Goma, again raising fears the virus could spread beyond the country’s borders as the outbreak enters a second year.

The man may never have known he had Ebola and was contagious for days before the illness was confirmed, officials said — alarming some in the city of more than 2 million people on the Rwandan border that has an international airport.

BENI, Congo (AP) — Two-month-old Lahya Kathembo became an orphan in a day. Her mother succumbed to Ebola on a Saturday morning. By sunset her father was dead, too.

They had been sick for more than a week before health workers finally persuaded them to seek treatment, neighbors said. They believed their illness was the work of people jealous about their newborn daughter, a community organizer said, and sought the guidance of a traditional spiritual healer.

BENI, Congo (AP) — The Congolese health ministry confirmed an Ebola case in Goma late Sunday, marking the first time the virus has reached the city of more than 2 million people along the border with Rwanda since the epidemic began nearly a year ago.

The health ministry said the man who had arrived earlier Sunday in the regional capital had been quickly transported to an Ebola treatment center. Authorities said they had tracked down all the passengers on the bus the man took to Goma from Butembo, one of the towns hardest hit by the disease.

27 May 2019; DW: At least 30 people have died and around 200 more are missing after a boat sank on a lake in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Ferry accidents are common in Congo, with boats frequently overloaded and lacking life vests.

At least 30 people have died and dozens more were missing on Sunday after a boat accident on Lake Mai-Ndombe in western Democratic Republic of Congo, a local mayor said.

KINSHASA, Congo (AP) — Authorities in western Congo say at least 30 people are dead and another 200 are missing after a boat sank on a lake.

Simon Mboo Wemba, the mayor of Inongo, told The Associated Press on Sunday night that many of those aboard the boat that sank on Lake Mai-Ndombe were teachers.

The mayor says they had traveled to collect their salaries by boat because roads in the region are so poor.

It was not immediately known how many people were aboard the boat when it hit bad weather late Saturday.

KINSHASA, Congo (AP) — More than 1,000 people have died from Ebola in eastern Congo since August, the country’s health minister said Friday as hostility toward health workers continues to hamper efforts to contain the second-deadliest outbreak of the virus.

Health Minister Oly Ilunga told The Associated Press that four deaths in the outbreak’s epicenter of Katwa helped push the death toll to 1,008. Two more deaths were reported in the city of Butembo.

14 Mar 2019; DW: Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi has pardoned around 700 political prisoners jailed under his predecessor.

Among those to be freed on Wednesday were opposition figures Franck Diongo, Diomi Ndongala and Firmin Yangambi, who had been jailed under former President Joseph Kabila for various national security offenses.

The pardons fulfill a promise Tshisekedi made to free opposition political prisoners in his first 100 days in office.

DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — U.N. investigators say crimes against humanity may have been committed when at least 535 people were killed in intercommunal violence over three days in Congo in December.

The investigative team believes the death toll from the massacre in western Congo is likely higher, saying many victims’ bodies are believed to have been thrown in a nearby river.

Investigators say the violence between the Banunu and Batende communities began after a dispute over a burial for a Banunu customary chief.