Some stories to watch:
- Vital Kamerhe left for a tour of the East of the country immediately after launching his UNC political party on Tuesday. On Wednesday, he was in Goma, where a melee broke out between police, his supporters and people who turned out to stone his convoy. Given the commotion, Kamerhe was unable to hold his public rally. Kamerhe claims that he was blocked from speaking officially to his supporters; government officials say that the election campaign hasn’t started yet, so he can’t be carrying out such events. Yesterday he arrived in Bukavu, where a large crowd of supporters turned out to greet him.
- The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has published their proposed guidelines for conflict minerals legislation, you can download them here. The SEC was required by the conflict minerals legislation passed last year in Congress to propose a set of regulations to implement the bill. Also, the UN has published a more accessible version of their own, very similar guidelines. In the meantime, the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR), meeting in Lusaka on Wednesday, signed an agreement on making the minerals trade more transparent.
- Bishop Levy Mbala, the head of the Church of Christ in the Congo – one of the largest protestant church groups in the country – was wounded and his wife killed in an attack on their house in Goma on Monday. The cause of the attack is not yet known; the attackers wore balaclavas to conceal their faces.