STORY: DR Congo military court presses charges against M23 rebellion leaders
SHOOTING TIME: July 24, 2024
DATELINE: July 25, 2024
LENGTH: 00:02:36
LOCATION: Kinshasa
CATEGORY: POLITICS

SHOTLIST:
1. various of the trial on the military court in Kinshasa

STORYLINE:

A military court of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) opened the trial against Corneille Nangaa on Wednesday, political leader of the Congo River Alliance (AFC), a politico-military group allied to the March 23 Movement (M23) rebel group.

Nangaa, former president of DRC's Independent National Electoral Commission, an agency responsible for election affairs, and 25 others are prosecuted for war crimes, participation in a criminal group, and treason.

Corneille Nangaa's wife, Yvette Lubanda Nazinda, in exile in Europe, is also prosecuted for "treason, war crimes and participation in an insurrectional movement".

Sultani Makenga, leader of the M23, Bertrand Bisimwa, M23's political leader, Willy Ngoma and Lawrence Kanyuka, M23's spokespersons, are also on the list of defendants.

In December 2023, several days before the DRC general elections, Nangaa formed a political-military alliance, AFC, with M23 rebels and other armed groups, to "save the country."

Uncertainty and a humanitarian crisis loom in the eastern DRC, despite an extended truce until Aug. 3 between the DRC military and the M23 rebellion, which controls nearly 100 villages in the eastern North Kivu province after resurfacing in late 2021.

More than 900,000 newly displaced people were reported, between January and April 2024, bringing the total number of the displaced to around 7.3 million in country, including more than 5.6 million in the three eastern provinces, namely North Kivu, South Kivu, and Ituri, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

Xinhua News Agency correspondents reporting from Kinshasa.
(XHTV)