Sports diplomacy uses the universal passion for sports as a way to transcend linguistic and socio-cultural differences and bring people together, and has emerged as an integral part of efforts to build ever-strengthening relations between the United States and other nations. Accompanied by former NBA star Cedric Ceballos and Frank Traore from the NBA Africa office, we arrived first in Brazzaville, the capital of the Republic of Congo.

The United States urged Democratic Republic of Congo on Sunday to stick to its constitution that sets terms limits for the president, as speculation grows that Joseph Kabila may seek a third term. Highlighting an issue that exists in several African countries where leaders have sought to extend their rule beyond constitutional limits, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry pledged $30 million in aid aimed in part at ensuring "credible" elections in 2016.

On a Saturday morning in late January, Russ Feingold descended a tight path in the hilly forests of the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s Kahuzi-Biega National Park to look for gorillas. The former Democratic senator from Wisconsin wore a long-sleeved safari shirt over a blue polo, a coiled bracelet to repel mosquitos, a surgical mask to protect the gorillas from human germs and two pairs of socks, with his zip-off cargo pants tucked into the outer pair to keep out ants.

Joseph Kony has been called Africa’s most wanted man, and for good reason: Over the past 27 years, he has led a rebel militia of child soldiers that is responsible for the death of more than 100,000 people and the kidnapping of some 50,000 young boys and girls. From 1986 to 2006, Kony savaged northern Uganda, terrorizing defenseless villages. But after losing clandestine support from Sudan and refuge in neighboring South Sudan, he took his Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) to the northern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and began peace talks with the Ugandan government.

The Democratic Republic of Congo and defeated M23 rebels failed to sign a hoped-for peace deal Monday, after Kinshasa demanded the agreement be revised, a Ugandan government official said. The "DRC delegation has aborted the signing of agreement with M23," Ugandan government spokesman Ofwono Opondo said, adding that the meeting was "adjourned sine die (without date)."

Soon after the end of the M23 rebellion that threw parts of eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) into conflict for much of the last two years, a blog post titled "We Stopped M23" appeared on the website of a California-based nonprofit called Falling Whistles. The slick homepage describes the organization as “a campaign for peace in Congo." It urges visitors to “be a whistleblower for peace” by purchasing stylish metal whistles, hung on a chain or black cord, from the organization's online store.

The M23 rebel group declared an end to its 20-month rebellion in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo on Tuesday, saying it was ready to disarm its troops and pursue a political solution. The movement has decided "to end its rebellion from this day forward and pursue, by purely political means, the search for solutions to the root causes that led to its creation," M23 leader Bertrand Bisimwa said in a statement.

After two months of intensive planning, the day finally arrived for the start of a two-week law enforcement training seminar for 45 police officers, customs officials, and immigration specialists from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Co-hosted by the Bureau for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL) and the Regional Security Office (RSO) at the U.S. Embassy in Kinshasa, this course marked the first time INL would sponsor this type of training in the DRC.