Looking for current info DRC
 

We wouldappreciate any info on this part of the route.
Kisangani-Domiongo-Kananga- Kamia-Kolwezi-Likasi-Lubumbashi-Kasumbalesa-ZAMBIE

Felix

Hi Felix,

I have no solid info in this route, sorry. Last I heard was that Congo is still very unstable (violence) in the eastern and southern region. Especially in the Kananga, Bukavu, Kalemi triangle. This info dates from the last time I investigated the possibilities of visiting congo (about 6 months ago). Situation might have changed in the meanwhile.

I was planning on just crossing DRC in the west at the coastline which should be safe.

If you plan to do this route, you'll probably have to make your own way, not a lot of tourists have been there in the last decades.

Keep us updated if you find some info on this route, it would be greatly appreciatd!

Cheers,

Fred

I looked a little further, most countries still give negative travelling advice for DRC, especially Northern en Southern Kivu as well as the border area between Katanga and Zambia.
The problem are the revolting (ex) army groups, people you should definitly avoid.
Seems like a bad idea to go there now...

Once again, this is the "official" information, we all knwo the situation on the terrain can be different... but I wouldn't bet on it in this case :-0

Check the foreign affairs department of your country to see what they have to say about travelling to Congo.


[This message has been edited by 2cvfred (edited 29 April 2005).]

We are currently in Calabar, Nigeria. We are about to apply for our Cameroon visa.

Unfortunately we have not heard any news on the DRC route but we will be using it should our Angolan visa be denied in Libreville, Gabon due to the virus (more rumours maybe).

Cheers



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www.bigsky-adventures.com

A general advice: don't go there for the moment, situation is very unstable (and being in Congo-Brazzaville I got the information pretty first-hand).

In general the situation in RDC is to be watched due to the elections that will be postponed, but especially the east is not recommended for safety reasons...

Regarding the Marburg epidemy in Angola, that seems to be stabilising, with most of the cases having taken place in the regions of Songo, Uige and Bungo (all in the north of Angola). Isolated cases have been spotted in Cabinda.

Hope this info helps...

happy travelling/ Jef Imans

Felix,

here is some other info from a traveller that was just there. (From thorn tree).

It is possible to cross over from Kinshasa to Lubumbashi and hell, I even met a fellow today who is going to try and barge his Landrover up the Congo to Kisingani and then try to drive to Uganda. Crazy Brit. That is one place I wouldn't recommend to you (or him, not that he would listen). An easier route through the Congos to Angola I described in one of my posts about a month ago called 'DRC Congo update' but if you have the time, patience and confidence then going across the Congo up the river to Ilebo and then the train to Lubumbashi sure would be an experience. All the people I talked to in Kinshasa said it is possible but would probably take well over a month to do. Hope you speak French.

And here is the URL to the previous post he mentions:
http://thorntree.lonelyplanet.com/me...entid=0&from=1

Hope this helps,
Albert

Again a bit of update on DRC: if you can avoid it for the second half of June, do so... general expectation is that there will be trouble, at least in Kinshasa. Now it is always hard to predict these kind of things, but there are definitely signs - for example for the moment most traders have stopped importing goods because they don't wanna have stocks...

The good thing is that nothing seems to be targetted at foreigners, but when you are caught in the middle of it I would not use that as an argument ;-)

If anyone still plans to go, feel free to hop over to Brazzaville, always welcome..

jef

Hi Jef,

Thanks for the updated information.
We start in September for a trip from Belgium to South-Africa and planned to go via Cameroon-Congo-DRC-Angola-Namibia.
I will drop a mail if we make it to the DRC

Benny