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Chinese nationals arrested with gold bars and $800,000 cash in DR Congo

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Three Chinese nationals have been arrested with 12 gold bars and $800,000 (£650,000) in cash in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, officials say.

The gold and money was hidden under the seats of the vehicle they were travelling in, according to Jean Jacques Purusi, the governor of South Kivu province.

He said the operation to arrest the men had been kept secret after the recent release of another group of Chinese nationals accused of running an illegal gold mine in the area.

Eastern DR Congo has abundant reserves of gold, diamonds and the minerals used to make batteries for mobile phones and electric vehicles.

This mineral wealth has been plundered by foreign groups since the colonial era and is one of the main reasons why the region has been plagued by instability for the last 30 years.

Militia groups control many of the mines in eastern DR Congo and their leaders become wealthy by selling it to middle-men.

Purusi said some of these dealers in precious metals enjoyed good relations with influential people in the capital, Kinshasa, and this was why the mission to carry out these latest arrests had to be kept quiet.

He said they had been acting on a tip-off and that the gold and money was only found after a meticulous search of the vehicle in the Walungu area not far from the border with Rwanda.

He did not say exactly how much gold had been seized.

Last month, the governor told reporters he was shocked to hear that 17 Chinese nationals, who had been arrested on allegations they had been running an illegal gold mine, had been freed and allowed to return to China.

He said this undermined efforts to clean up DR Congo’s notoriously murky mineral sector.

They owed $10m in taxes and fines to the government, the Reuters news agency quotes him as saying.

The Chinese embassy has not commented on the allegations.

The arrests come as fighting continues to flare in the neighbouring North Kivu province, where a Rwanda backed rebel group has captured large areas of territory.

Last month, DR Congo said it was suing Apple over the use of “blood minerals”, prompting the tech giant to say it had stopped getting supplies from both DR Congo and neighbouring Rwanda.

Rwanda has denied being a conduit for the export of illegal minerals from DR Congo.

In their lawsuit, lawyers acting for the Congolese government alleged that the minerals taken from conflict areas was then “laundered through international supply chains”.

“These activities have fuelled a cycle of violence and conflict by financing militias and terrorist groups and have contributed to forced child labour and environmental devastation,” they said.

[BBC]



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Foreign News

Myanmar military announces temporary truce as quake death toll passes 3,000

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Locals ride motorbikes while rescuers clean debris from damaged buildings in the aftermath of Friday's earthquake in Naypyidaw, Myanmar, April 2, 2025 [Aljazeera]

Myanmar’s governing military has declared a unilateral, temporary ceasefire in the country’s civil war to facilitate rescue efforts after last week’s powerful earthquake, as state television reported the death toll from the disaster had surpassed 3,000.

MRTV said that the truce would last from Wednesday until April 22 and was aimed at making quake relief efforts easier.

The announcement followed unilateral temporary ceasefires announced by armed resistance groups opposed to military rule. Those groups must refrain from attacking the state, or regrouping, or else the military will take “necessary” measures, the army said in a statement.

The death toll from the earthquake in Myanmar rose to 3,003, and more than 4,500 were injured, MRTV reported late on Wednesday.

In neighbouring Thailand, the death toll from the quake rose to 22, with hundreds of buildings damaged and 72 people missing.

In an incident underlining the challenge of delivering relief at a time of civil war in Myanmar, the military said its troops fired warning shots after a Chinese Red Cross convoy failed to pull over as it travelled in a conflict zone.

The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs told the media that its rescue team and supplies were safe after the incident on Tuesday.

Guo Jiakun, a ministry spokesperson, said at a news conference that Beijing hoped “all factions and parties in Myanmar will prioritise earthquake relief efforts, ensuring the safety of rescue personnel and supplies from China and other countries”.

“It’s necessary to keep transportation routes for relief efforts open and unobstructed,” Guo said.

Myanmar and Chinese rescuers carry the body of a victim that was trapped under the rubble of the collapsed building
Myanmar and Chinese rescuers carry the body of a victim who was trapped under the rubble of the collapsed Sky Villa condominium in Mandalay [File Aljazeera]

Military government spokesperson Zaw Min Tun said the Chinese Red Cross had not informed authorities it was in a conflict zone on Tuesday night, and a security team fired shots in the air after the convoy, which included local vehicles, failed to stop.

The military has struggled to run Myanmar following its coup against the elected civilian government of Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi in 2021, reducing the economy and basic services, including healthcare, to tatters after civil war broke out.

The United Nations said more than 28 million people in the six regions were affected by the earthquake and that it put in place $12m in emergency funding for food, shelter, water, sanitation, mental health support and other services.

As hopes of finding more survivors were fading on Wednesday, rescuers pulled two men alive from the ruins of a hotel in Myanmar’s capital, Naypyidaw, and a third from a guesthouse in another city – five days after the magnitude 7.7 quake. But most teams were finding only bodies.

The rural parts of the hard-hit Sagaing region, mostly under the control of armed resistance groups fighting the military government, are among the most challenging for aid agencies to reach.

Earlier, Human Rights Watch urged the military government to allow unfettered access for humanitarian aid and lift curbs impeding aid agencies, saying donors should channel aid through independent groups rather than only the authorities.

“Myanmar’s junta cannot be trusted to respond to a disaster of this scale,” Bryony Lau, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch, said in a report. “Concerned governments and international agencies need to press the junta to allow full and immediate access to survivors, wherever they are.”

[Aljazeera]

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Death sentence for three Americans over DR Congo coup attempt overturned

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(L-R) Benjamin Zalman-Polun, Marcel Malanga and Tyler Thompson were sentenced to death over last year's coup attempt in DR Congo [BBC]

Three Americans convicted for their role in a failed coup in Democratic Republic of Congo last year have had their death sentences commuted to life imprisonment, the presidency has said.

They were among 37 people sentenced to death last September by a military court.

The three were accused of leading an attack on both the presidential palace and the home of an ally of President Félix Tshisekedi last May.

The overturning of the sentences comes ahead of a visit to DR Congo by the newly appointed US senior advisor for Africa, Massad Boulos.

Boulos, father-in-law to President Donald Trump’s daughter, Tiffany, is expected to arrive in Kinshasa on Thursday on a trip that will also take him to Rwanda, Kenya and Uganda.

The US has not declared the three Americans to be wrongfully jailed in DR Congo but the State Department said previously there have been talks between the countries over the matter.

The three were convicted of criminal conspiracy, terrorism and other charges, which they denied.

[BBC]

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Netanyahu nominates new Israeli spy chief despite court order

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[file pic] Protesters rally against the resumption of fighting in Gaza and the dismissal of Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar, Tel Aviv, Israel, March 22 [Aljazeera]

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has nominated a former Navy commander to head the country’s domestic security services, despite the courts having blocked his bid to fire the previous head of Shin Bet.

Netanyahu’s office announced on Monday that he had nominated Vice Admiral Eli Sharvit to lead the agency, which surveils attacks from abroad and at home, including by armed groups based in Palestine and Lebanon. However, a halt to the sacking of Ronen Bar as head of Shin Bet, ordered by the Supreme Court, remains in place.

[Aljazeera]

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