Hundreds of Congolese police join rebels in occupied city
Voice of America
Congolese police officers board trucks after an enrollment of civilians, police officers, and former members of the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of Congo who allegedly decided to join the M23 movement voluntarily in Bukavu, Democratic Republic of Congo, Feb. 22, 2025.
Crowds of Congolese police officers who switched to the M23 rebel group sang and clapped in occupied Bukavu city on Saturday, preparing for retraining under the authority of the rebels who are intent on showing they plan to stick around and govern.
A mahout sprays water over elephants during their daily bath in a river, at the Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage in Pinnawala on Feb. 16, 2025 as Sri Lanka's main elephant orphanage marked its 50th anniversary. Tourists take pictures as elephants return to the Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage after taking their daily bath in a river in Pinnawala, Sri Lanka, on Feb. 16, 2025. Elephants stroll across the Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage in Pinnawala, Sri Lanka, on Feb. 16, 2025.
People wear merchandise in support of US President Donald Trump at a vendor booth during the annual Conservative Political Action Conference at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center at National Harbor in Oxon Hill, Maryland, on Feb. 21, 2025.
A poster shows pictures of the Bibas family, top row from second left: Yarden, Shiri, and their sons Ariel and Kfir, who were kidnapped on Oct. 7, 2023, in Jerusalem, Feb. 21, 2025. Words above read, '37 members of Kibbutz Nir Oz are still missing.' Palestinian Hamas militants and people gather at the site of the handing over of the bodies of four Israeli hostages in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip on Feb. 20, 2025.
FILE - Students attend a new student orientation at the University of Texas at Dallas in Richardson, Texas, Aug. 22, 2015.
People displaced by armed gang attacks take refuge in the town hall of the Kenscoff neighborhood of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Feb. 13, 2025.
FILE - U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent speaks at the White House in Washington on Feb. 3, 2025. Bessent spoke with Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng by phone on Feb. 21, expressing frustration with that nation's efforts at rebalancing its economy.
Members of the M23 movement monitor the area following the takeover of the city at the Place de l'Independance in Bukavu on Feb. 20, 2025. M23 rebels guard outside the South Kivu province administrative office, at the center of east Congo's second-largest city, Bukavu, Feb. 16, 2025.
FILE - A member of the local police patrols a checkpoint for Islamic State militants in Nangarhar province, Afghanistan, July 7, 2018. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Feb. 20, 2025, that Islamic State and other terrorists could be operating in Afghanistan.
A poster shows Shiri Bibas, who was kidnapped to Gaza with her husband and two young sons on Oct. 7, 2023, in Jerusalem, Feb. 21, 2025. Palestinian militants and members of the Red Cross gather near vehicles on the day Hamas hands over deceased Israeli hostages to the Red Cross, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, Feb. 20, 2025. People react at the so-called "Hostages Square" in Tel Aviv, Israel, Feb. 20, 2025, as the bodies of four people, including two children, are handed over by Hamas to the Red Cross in Gaza.
In this photo provided by the Australian Defense Force, the People's Liberation Army-Navy Jiangkai-class frigate Hengyang travels in the Torres Strait off Australia's coast, on Feb. 11, 2025.
FILE - In this file photo dated May 1, 2019, a woman and child sit on a hill overlooking the Euphrates River as families picnic on May Day, in Derik, Syria.
FILE - U.S. President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrive for a news conference in the White House on Feb. 4, 2025, in Washington.