Free Republic

A senior official with the International Monetary Fund expressed concern over the Democratic Republic of Congo's levels of debt to China, in a report released Wednesday after a 18-day visit here.

KINSHASA, Congo (AP) -- The U.N. said Monday it had launched a military operation to rescue foreign diplomats inside the besieged home of a Congo presidential candidate.

KINSHASA (Reuters) - Up to 200 people were missing and feared dead after a ferry was destroyed by fire on the mighty Congo River in the northwest of the Democratic Republic of Congo, U.N. officials in the country said on Saturday. A U.N. spokesman said aid workers had rescued 301 people out of about 500 passengers, many of whom scrambled to jump out of the boat as it fell apart engulfed by flames. He said the disaster happened last Monday, but the potential scale of the tragedy only became apparent on Friday when officials finally reached survivors sheltering in...

KINSHASA (Reuters) - Lightning has struck a school in the Democratic Republic of Congo killing 11 children and injuring 85, a U.N. official says. Pupils at a school for 200 students in Bikoro in the northwest of the giant central African country suffered burns or electric shock when the thunderbolt hit on Thursday. "Twenty five of the 85 injured are in a coma," the official told Reuters. "Most of the others have second-degree burns." The school buildings sustained virtually no damage, she said.