Day: September 29, 2022

The U.N. refugee agency says nearly 6,000 Congolese refugees have been helped to return home since December 2021, after years of exile in Zambia. The voluntary repatriation of Congolese refugees was based on a tripartite agreement signed in 2006 by the UNHCR and the governments of Zambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo. The refugees had fled political and inter-ethnic clashes in the DRC’s southeast region in 2017. They have gone back to their communities of origin in Haut-Katanga. Many parts of the DRC are riven with conflict and remain highly insecure. However, UNHCR spokesman Boris Cheshirkov said Haut-Katanga is

Oumy Diallo recalls the day she wanted to die. She was attending a pro-democracy protest in 2009 at a stadium in Conakry, Guinea, when a group of government security officials opened fire. As she attempted to escape, shrapnel pierced her back and forced her to the ground. She felt a pair of hands grab her ankles, she said, then several men took turns raping her. “Could I even count? Could I even count?” she said, trying to recall how many men raped her. “I just wanted to die.” Diallo, whose name has been changed to protect her privacy, was among