KINSHASA: Democratic Republic of Congo doubled salaries for soldiers and police on Friday, the Finance Ministry said, in an apparent bid to boost morale as Rwanda-backed M23 rebels advance in the east.
\nM23 has seized eastern Congo\u2019s two largest cities in a swift offensive that has left thousands dead, forced hundreds of thousands to flee their homes, and piled pressure on President Felix Tshisekedi.
\nThe Finance Ministry said that the pay hikes will be \u201ca turning point toward better conditions\u201d for the army. An officer in North Kivu province said on Thursday he had heard about the raises, but said that troops had not received even their basic salaries over the last two months since banks shut following the fall of the city of Goma.
\n\u201cWe learned that our pay has been doubled, but we have not yet experienced this increase because our salary has been frozen,\u201d the officer said.
\nCongo has roughly 260,000 soldiers and other security forces, according to the 2025 budget law.
\nGovernment documents show that official monthly salaries since 2022 have averaged between $100 and $200 for all ranks.
\nIt was not immediately clear what effect the pay raise would have on the budget.
\nA draft law amending the budget for 2025 was due to be sent to lawmakers earlier this month, but that has not emerged.
\n\u201cThese expenses are being incurred outside the budget. This is serious because no one will be able to monitor the actual numbers and salaries of the military personnel to be paid,\u201d Valery Madianga, a Congolese expert on public finances, said.
\nRwanda denies allegations from Congo and the UN that it supports the M23 with arms and troops, saying its forces are acting in self defense against Congo\u2019s army and militias hostile to Kigali.
\nRwanda\u2019s government severed links with Belgium on March 17, accusing it of having \u201cconsistently undermined\u201d it during the conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
\nNational and international NGOs working in Rwanda have been banned from cooperating with Belgian institutions, the Rwanda Governance Board said, after Kigali cut off diplomatic ties with Brussels earlier this month.
\nThe RGB, which oversees service delivery in the east African nation, said the ban also extended to \u201cfaith-based organizations\u201d and common-benefit companies.
\nThe RGB said any current projects or agreements with the Belgian government or its affiliates were \u201cprohibited\u201d and \u201cmust be terminated immediately and reported.\u201d \u201cNo funds, grants, donations, or financial contributions shall be received from or disbursed to the government of Belgium, its institutions, affiliated agencies or programs,\u201d it said in a statement issued Thursday.
\n\u201cAny attempts to circumvent these financial restrictions, including indirect transactions through subsidiaries or partner organizations, will be subject to strict penalties.\u201d
\nPolitical and human rights activist Pelly Prudence Iraguha said the decision should have been submitted to parliament.
\nBut RGB chief executive Doris Uwicyeza Picard wrote on X: \u201cRGB has powers to take such decisions backed by laws passed by parliament.
\n\u201cThese laws give RGB powers to suspend NGOs involved in activities that infringe on citizens unity or security.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
KINSHASA: Democratic Republic of Congo doubled salaries for soldiers and police on Friday, the Finance Ministry said, in an apparent bid to boost morale as Rwanda-backed M23 rebels advance in the east. M23 has seized eastern Congo\u2019s two largest cities in a swift offensive that has left thousands dead, forced hundreds of thousands to flee …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":79090,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-79072","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79072","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=79072"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79072\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":79091,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79072\/revisions\/79091"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/79090"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=79072"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=79072"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=79072"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}