The Latest Breaking News from Radio France Internationale

President Emmanuel Macron is stepping up diplomatic efforts to address the worsening crisis in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), where violence between the Congolese army and M23 rebels has displaced hundreds of thousands. The rebels are reportedly supported by Rwandan forces, a claim Kigali denies.

France's Culture Minister Rachida Dati says the controversial plan to reform the public broadcasting sector will be "completed by the summer". Delayed several times, the proposed reorganisation has previously prompted angry strikes.

Niger's president Mohamed Bazoum has spent 550 days as a hostage of the military junta in the capital, Niamey. His lawyers say that his detention is setting a dangerous precedent and have launched a global campaign to have him released.

French Prime Minister François Bayrou said 4,000 public teaching jobs would not be cut in the 2025 budget, reversing a plan by his predecessor Michel Barnier.

Several African nations have committed to open up their electricity sectors to attract investors and light up the homes of 300 million people currently lacking power over the next six years. "Mission 300" is driving the agenda at a two-day energy summit in Tanzania.

Researchers and students from France's National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) organised protests on Monday, calling for its president to step down. They are concerned that huge budget cuts and a new funding strategy will penalise some sectors more than others.

France’s varied geology makes it fertile ground for dinosaur fossil hunters, but many finds have only been unearthed in the last 20 years, with French palaeontologists only recently becoming interested in dinosaurs – and now funding is becoming harder to secure.

EU foreign ministers on Monday agreed to begin easing sanctions on Syria after the ouster of Bashar al-Assad in December, the bloc's top diplomat said.

A Holocaust memorial was inaugurated in Lyon on Sunday, marking the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Nazi death camp Auschwitz-Birkenau. Over 6,000 Jews from the French city were killed between 1941-1945.

Some 115,000 pupils began returning to school in Mayotte on Monday, six weeks after cyclone Chido devastated the French Indian Ocean archipelago. Conditions remain difficult for both teachers and pupils and some schools remain shuttered for the time being.

Gunfire rang out early on Monday across parts of Goma, the largest city in eastern Congo, hours after Rwanda-backed M23 rebels said they had taken control of the city despite the United Nations Security Council's calling for an end to the offensive. France has condemned Rwanda's actions and said the…