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☆ Analysis: Brazil's Lula hopes to unite rainforest nations, tap funding at COP27
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-06 | by ( Michael Taylor | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +7 min

read moreIn the run-up to the COP27 U.N. climate summit, taking place in Egypt from Nov. 6-18, green groups urged Brazil and other forest nations to team up to increase their bargaining power during talks with potential donors over rainforest protection. Brazil was the climate-change success story of the early 2000s when its government - led then by Lula - slashed deforestation rates in the Amazon, she said. But enforcing forest protection laws in remote areas is a problem for all three, conservationists said, while Bolsonaro's allies form the largest bloc in Brazil's Congress, which could hinder Lula's policy push. Other forest nations - like Colombia - could also take part in talks and join any new alliance at COP27 to create a "more robust and effective" coalition, he added. "Done right, collaboration and exchange of experience between rainforest countries can help in tackling deforestation," Jaeger said.

☆ Congo expels Rwanda ambassador as M23 rebels capture strategic town
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-29 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

The rebel group, which Congo authorities accuse Rwanda of backing but Rwanda denies, seized the town of Kiwanja in eastern Congo on Saturday, effectively cutting North Kivu's capital Goma off from the upper half of the province. The army has conducted strategic retreats from populated areas to move fighting away from towns and protect civilians. Neither General Sylvain Ekenge, the army's national spokesman, nor Colonel Ndjike Kaiko, the army's spokesman for North Kivu, immediately responded to calls and messages requesting comment. Unrest in North Kivu has broken months of relative calm in eastern Congo after the resumption of clashes between the army and the M23 militants. read moreWhen it formed in 2012, M23 was the newest in a series of ethnic Tutsi-led insurgencies to rise up against Congolese forces.

☆ 3 chimpanzees are being held for ransom after being stolen from a sanctuary in Congo, as experts fear more widespread animal kidnapping
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-26 | by ( Marianne Guenot | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Three baby chimpanzees are being held for ransom, said founders of a primate rescue sanctuary in Africa. That's about 3,000 to 5,000 chimps killed every year in the DRC alone, per France Info. But this is the first time that a primate has been held for ransom, and they have received death threats. An endangered pangolin was also held for ransom earlier this year in another area of the country. The two incidents have experts worried that the tactic may become widespread among criminals in the DRC, per the Times.

CNN —An animal sanctuary in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is facing demands for ransom money, after kidnappers abducted three of its baby chimpanzees. “This is the first time in the world that baby apes were kidnapped for ransom,” Franck Chantereau, founder of the sanctuary where the kidnap took place, told CNN on Friday. But they didn’t come so the kidnappers took these three babies hostage and demanded a large amount of ransom from us,” Chantereau said. “Obviously, it’s impossible for us to pay the ransom,” Chantereau said. But Chantereau said the kidnapping won’t shake his determination to save baby chimps from the clutches of smugglers.

CNN —Uganda declared an outbreak of Ebola after a case of the relatively rare Sudan strain was confirmed in the country, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Tuesday. “This is the first time in more than a decade that Uganda is recording the Ebola Sudan strain,” Dr. Matshidiso Moeti, WHO Regional Director for Africa said. “We are working closely with the national health authorities to investigate the source of this outbreak.”Uganda last reported an outbreak of Ebola Sudan in 2012, the WHO said. Uganda’s last outbreak was in 2019 when it confirmed the Zaire Ebola strain, which led to the death a of 9-year-old Congolese girl near the border with the DRC. According to the WHO, vaccination has been approved against the Zaire strain but inoculation against the Sudan strain hasn’t been tested.

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