Category: Blog

The Enough Project has long advocated for the appointment of a dedicated envoy to coordinate U.S. government policy toward the Great Lakes Region, and although not at the level of envoy, the appointment of special representative for the Great Lakes region, Ambassador R. Barrie Walkley, is a promising development for U.S. engagement in the region ...

A couple of weeks ago, with elections fast approaching, some felt a renewed hope for transitional justice in Congo. A coalition of rights groups introduced “Justice Now for the DRC,” a countrywide campaign aimed at improving Congo’s justice system and securing government financial and political support for it. But the Justice Now initiative faces an uphill battle. The proposed Specialized Mixed Courts it advocates for have faced powerful opponents ever since the concept was suggested as a remedy to addressing significant shortcomings of the Congolese judicial system ...

In her first guest blog post for Enough Said, Dr. Ellen J. Kennedy, a Minnesota-based professor, wrote about her ‘Enough Moment,’ which inspired the creation of a non-profit organization called World Without Genocide. As a follow-up, and in response to a reader’s comment, Kennedy wrote this post describing her group’s use of theater in their curriculum ...

With the announcement of Congo’s next president expected before midnight tonight, though possibly delayed, the restive eastern part of the country is quiet but wary about what tomorrow might bring. According to the preliminary count by the national electoral commission, tallied by province, Kabila is leading in both North and South Kivu but doesn’t carry a majority in either province. But unlike in other parts of the country, a Kabila victory will likely spur a greater calm in the East than any other electoral outcome ...

This week's post in the series Enough 101 looks at the history of the Democratic Republic of Congo between 2006, when the first elections were held, and present day ...

Earlier this fall, I connected with the volunteers and staff from the One Million Bones project in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The project, a collaborative art installation, is intended to create a visible movement to increase global awareness of the ongoing atrocities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sudan, and Burma. One Million Bones asks people around the globe to create and submit their handmade bones to raise awareness of these conflicts, and suggests a small donation that will benefit three organizations that provide advocacy and direct services on the ground—one of which is Raise Hope for Congo ...

First assessments by the three major international observer missions of Congo’s presidential and legislative elections have come out, as the country awaits the official results, expected late tomorrow. An important question to ask: Did the elections observers have enough personnel on the ground to accurately assess how freely and fairly people were able to cast their votes? ...

With the recent African Union, or A.U., announcement of the selection of a special envoy, many keen observers of anti-LRA initiatives have been wondering: Who is Francisco Caetano José Madeira, and what will he contribute to the efforts to end the destabilizing activities and atrocities committed by the Lord’s Resistance Army? A lifelong Mozambican diplomat with familiarity in the Great Lakes region as well as years of service to both the United Nations and the A.U., Madeira brings over three decades of diplomatic experience to the post of LRA special envoy ...

Darfur Dream Team Program Assistant Meghan Higginbotham is on her way back home after spending two weeks visiting the Darfuri refugee camps in eastern Chad, which we covered here on Enough Said. During her trip, Meghan met with students, teachers, and camp leaders from the Goz Amer and Djabal refugee camps, where she learned about the challenges to a quality education in the camps. Meet some of the people Meghan spent time with in Djabal refugee camp ...

Today, ICC Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo requested that an arrest warrant be issued for current Sudanese Defense Minister Abdelrahim Mohamed Hussein for crimes against humanity and war crimes allegedly committed in Darfur from August 2003 to March 2004. In a fact sheet assembled by Enough, we provided some background about who Hussein is and where he stands in the security apparatus of Sudan, set out the allegations laid against him today by the ICC in reference to crimes committed in Darfur, and described the crimes for which Enough believes he shares responsibility in Blue Nile, South Kordofan, and Abyei ...