Jeffrey Gettleman’s New York Times dispatches from Goma, the Congolese city under siege by rebel forces, have been must-reads this week. Today, Gettleman reports a kind of uneasy truce: “the rattle of gunfire was remarkably absent for the first time in days.” The forces of rebel leader Laurent Nkunda were apparently respecting a cease-fire they had called Wednesday. However, there was still bloodshed: “rogue” government soldiers had turned on Goma residents, leaving ransacked houses full of dead bodies. Over at The Independent, Johann Hari provides some essential background on how the conflict began.
Read it at The New York Times
