UN experts have “credible information” that Zimbabwe may have received Chinese arms last year via Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo), a recently published report said.
The UN Security Council report cites four Boeing aircraft flights that took place between Kinshasa, Harare and Lubumbashi and “transported a total of 53 tonnes of ammunition destined to the Zimbabwean army” between Aug. 20 and Aug. 22 this year.
“While this is not a violation of the arms embargo, it is an indication that the Democratic Republic of the Congo could become a transit point for weapons destined for other countries,” it said.
In March, the Security Council extended an arms embargo until Dec. 31 targeting the many armed militias operating in eastern DR Congo, but not the government’s armed forces, the FARDC.
The measure, Resolution 1807, stipulates the FARDC can receive military equipment as long as the exporting country informs the council’s sanctions committee ahead of time.
But the group of experts on the DR Congo said they “obtained information regarding military supplies flown to FARDC from Khartoum without notification to the sanctions committee.”
The group also “received credible information that the weapons originated in China” and has written to the Chinese government.
“As the Democratic Republic of the Congo does not produce weapons or ammunition, this stock would have been imported to the [DR Congo] without notification and then possibly exported in violation of the original end-user agreement with the original exporter,” said the report, which was published on Dec. 12.
Beijing has been investing heavily in DR Congo in recent years.
It lent the African country an estimated US$9 billion in May to restore its infrastructure and revive the mining industry, following a US$35 million investment into the Congolese postal service last January.
Fighting since Aug. 28 between Congolese rebels and the Kinshasa government has displaced more than 250,000 people in DR Congo’s eastern Nord-Kivu Province.
CHAGOS ISLANDS: Recently elected Mauritian Prime Minister Navin Ramgoolam told lawmakers that the contents of negotiations are ‘unknown’ to the government Mauritius’ new prime minister ordered an independent review of a deal with the UK involving a strategically important US-UK military base in the Indian Ocean, placing the agreement under fresh scrutiny. Under a pact signed last month, the UK ceded sovereignty of the Chagos archipelago to Mauritius, while retaining control of Diego Garcia — the island where the base is situated. The deal was signed by then-Mauritian prime minister Pravind Jugnauth and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Oct. 3 — a month before elections in Mauritius in which Navin Ramgoolam became premier. “I have asked for an independent review of the
Czech intelligence chief Michal Koudelka has spent decades uncovering Russian spy networks, sabotage attempts and disinformation campaigns against Europe. Speaking in an interview from a high-security compound on the outskirts of Prague, he is now warning allies that pushing Kyiv to accept significant concessions to end the war in Ukraine would only embolden the Kremlin. “Russia would spend perhaps the next 10 to 15 years recovering from its huge human and economic losses and preparing for the next target, which is central and eastern Europe,” said Koudelka, a major general who heads the country’s Security Information Service. “If Ukraine loses, or is forced
THIRD IN A ROW? An expert said if the report of a probe into the defense official is true, people would naturally ask if it would erode morale in the military Chinese Minister of National Defense Dong Jun (董軍) has been placed under investigation for corruption, a report said yesterday, the latest official implicated in a crackdown on graft in the country’s military. Citing current and former US officials familiar with the situation, British newspaper the Financial Times said that the investigation into Dong was part of a broader probe into military corruption. Neither the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs nor the Chinese embassy in Washington replied to a request for confirmation yesterday. If confirmed, Dong would be the third Chinese defense minister in a row to fall under investigation for corruption. A former navy
France on Friday showed off to the world the gleaming restored interior of Notre-Dame cathedral, a week before the 850-year-old medieval edifice reopens following painstaking restoration after the devastating 2019 fire. French President Emmanuel Macron conducted an inspection of the restoration, broadcast live on television, saying workers had done the “impossible” by healing a “national wound” after the fire on April 19, 2019. While every effort has been made to remain faithful to the original look of the cathedral, an international team of designers and architects have created a luminous space that has an immediate impact on the visitor. The floor shimmers and
RSS