Phil Moore / AFP - Getty Images

Surrendered police officers hand in their weapons at the Volcanoes Stadium in Goma, in the east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, on November 21, 2012. M23 rebels, who took the city yesterday, called on any remaining policemen and army soldiers to assemble at the stadium this morning to officially surrender.

Phil Moore / AFP - Getty Images

Residents of Goma react as they listen to a M23 rebel group spokesman speak at the Volcanoes Stadium in Goma on November 21, 2012.

Phil Moore / AFP - Getty Images

Spokesman of the M23 rebel group Lieutenant-Colonel Vianney Kazarama arrives at the Volcanoes Stadium in Goma on November 21, 2012. Kazarama addressed the population of Goma in an attempt to calm and reassure the civilians following the fall of Goma to M23 rebels yesterday.

Phil Moore / AFP - Getty Images

A surrendered police officer stands at the Volcanoes Stadium in Goma on November 21, 2012.

Rebel forces in the Congolese city of Goma called on any remaining policemen and government soldiers to surrender and hand in their weapons Wednesday, Agence France-Presse reported, a day after the city fell to the rebels.

"The journey to liberate Congo has started now ... We're going to move on to Bukavu and then to Kinshasa. Are you ready to join us?" Vianney Kazarama, spokesman for the M23 rebels, told a crowd of more than 1,000 in a stadium in Goma.

"Its a problem of governance; there no food, there's no money," Rashidi Benshulungu, a captain in military intelligence who had changed sides, told Reuters. "I'm not a politician, that's a problem for [Congo's President] Kabila. But we're following the ARC," he added, using an acronym used by the M23's combat force.

Related content:

• Rebels pledge to 'liberate' Congo after seizing city
• Rebel army seizes control of Goma as UN peacekeepers do nothing
• Congo rebel clashes stoke fears of broader conflict
• UN condemns Congo attacks as rebel advance threatens Goma

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Joe Penney / Reuters

Mohamed Daciro Djalo exits the abandoned colonial governor's mansion on the island of Bolama, Guinea-Bissau, Nov. 5, 2012. Established in 1890, Bolama was the first Portuguese colonial capital of Guinea-Bissau.

Reuters reports — Since Guinea-Bissau switched to a multiparty system in 1995, no president has completed a full term. Before that, the country had a long history of coping with violence: it took 14 years of fighting for Guinea-Bissau to free itself from its brutal Portuguese rulers, who themselves had inflicted a 49-year war of pacification against the local African communities who resisted their rule. In total, the country has been officially at war for 65 out of the 122 years since its colonial creation. The extreme violence has scarred every citizen.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Image made available to NBC News on Nov. 20

Joe Penney / Reuters

People leave the colonial-era dock on the island of Bolama by pirogue, Guinea-Bissau, Nov. 6. Established in 1890, Bolama was the first Portuguese colonial capital of Guinea-Bissau. In 1941 the Portuguese moved to the present capital, Bissau.

Joe Penney / Reuters

A farmer, carrying wheat on his head, poses for a picture as he walks home after a day's work in Guiledge, Guinea-Bissau, Nov. 3. Guiledge was a stronghold of the Portuguese army and its fall to anti-colonial rebels in early 1973 marked the final stages of Portuguese rule.

Joe Penney / Reuters

A woman washes clothes in front of a colonial-era building on the island of Bolama, Guinea-Bissau, Nov. 5.

Joe Penney / Reuters

A man puts together Guinea-Bissau's state newspaper at a printing press in the capital Bissau, Oct. 30. During colonialism, the printers produced Portuguese colonial newsletters. After independence the papers printed the state newspaper and official bulletins.

Joe Penney / Reuters

Former independence fighters receive monthly pension payments in the capital Bissau, Oct. 29. Pensions range from $30 to $400 per month.

Joe Penney / Reuters

Former independence fighter Samba Diakite, 69, shows his prosthetic leg in his bedroom in Gabu, Guinea-Bissau, Nov. 3. In 1969, Diakite lost his leg in a mine blast set by the Portuguese army. Today there are still live mines in Guinea-Bissau's countryside, planted by the Portuguese during the independence war.

Joe Penney / Reuters

A statue of Portuguese explorer Nuno Tristao leans against a wall at a former Portuguese slave fort in Cacheu, Guinea-Bissau, Oct. 27. Tristao became the first European to set foot in what is now Guinea-Bissau when he arrived in 1446.

Joe Penney / Reuters

Former independence fighter Mamadu Sonaco Diallo, 80, gives a salute in Gabu, Guinea-Bissau, Nov. 3. Diallo joined the anti-colonial rebels to escape a life of raising cattle and became a specialist in clearing mines.

Related Aritcles:

• Six killed in failed Guinea-Bissau “counter-coup”
• Fare well, Guinea-Bissau
• Guinea-Bissau: Portugal behind failed coup bid

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Nic Bothma / EPA

A model waits backstage prior to the Bodyspectra body painting event in Cape Town, South Africa, on October 26, 2012.

Nic Bothma / EPA

A general view of the backstage area prior to the Bodyspectra body painting event.

Nic Bothma / EPA

Models mingle at the bar prior to the Bodyspectra body painting event.

Students at Cape Town's City Varsity School of Media and Creative Arts take part in Bodyspectra, South Africa's premier body painting event.

Artists and models prepared for up to fourteen hours before showcasing their creations at a gala show. The event forms the final practical evaluation for motion picture make-up and production design students. The brief is simple: create a human canvas using body paint, prosthetics and props.

-- European Pressphoto Agency

Editor's note: Pictures taken in October but made available to NBC News on November 20.

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Carl De Souza / AFP - Getty Images

Kenyan police officers detain a man in the Somali district of Eastleigh in Nairobi on Monday.

GRAPHIC WARNING: Contains images which some viewers may find disturbing. 

Updated at 12:45 pm ET

Tony Karumba / AFP - Getty Images

A youth of non-Somali ethinicity is armed with stones on Monday during inter-ethnic clashes in Nairobi's Eastleigh suburb.

Reuters reports — Kenyan police fired tear gas to disperse rioters who attacked ethnic Somalis in the Nairobi district known as "Little Mogadishu" on Monday, hurling rocks and smashing windows after a weekend bomb attack there killed nine people.

The violence coincided with the start of voter registration for a general election in March, adding to security concerns ahead of the first national polls since 2007 when a dispute over the results fuelled ethnic slaughter that killed more than 1,200 people and forced some 300,000 from their homes.

Angry mobs broke into Somali homes and shops in anger at Sunday's attack on a minibus which killed at least nine people in Nairobi's Eastleigh district which is dominated by Somali Kenyans and their ethnic kin who have fled fighting in Somalia.

Read the full story.

Daniel Irungu / EPA

Angry ethnic Somali youths shout slogans as they face off Kenyan youths during a riot in the predominantly Somali neighborhood of Eastleigh in Nairobi on Monday.

Carl De Souza / AFP - Getty Images

A Kenyan Police officer with a guard dog tries to control a crowd in the Somali district of Eastleigh in Nairobi on Monday. Kenyan residents in Eastleigh turned on Somalis and attacked their shops and stalls, accusing them of being responsible for a bomb on Sunday.

Carl De Souza / AFP - Getty Images

A suspected looter is restrained by a policeman with a dog in the Somali district of Eastleigh in Nairobi on Monday.

Tony Karumba / AFP - Getty Images

A man bleeds after he was attacked with machetes by people of Somali ethnicity on Monday during inter-ethnic clashes in Nairobi's Eastleigh suburb.

Noor Khamis / Reuters

Mathare slum residents escape from a cloud of tear gas thrown by the police during the second day of skirmishes in the Eastleigh neighborhood of Kenya's capital Nairobi on November 19, 2012.

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Rebecca Blackwell / AP

A woman walks past campaign posters for incumbent President Ernest Bai Koroma in Freetown, Sierra Leone, Nov. 15, 2012. Ten years after the end of a devastating civil war, Sierra Leone will go to the polls on Saturday to choose between incumbent Koroma and opposition leader Julius Maada Bio.

Rebecca Blackwell / AP

A Sierra Leone People's Party supporter wears glasses made of wire and reeds in the shape of the party's initials at the final campaign rally for candidate Julius Maada Bio, in Freetown, Nov. 15.

TILORMA, Sierra Leone (Reuters) — When the European Union's chief election observer Richard Howitt asked people in this remote village last month if they had concerns about Sierra Leone's looming presidential poll, he got a sobering response: what is voting?

The question from one of the villagers in the gold and diamond mining district of Kenema underscored the challenges facing this West African country ahead of Saturday's elections, which will become the latest test of democracy in a region notorious for flawed polls, civil wars, and coups.

Incumbent President Ernest Bai Koroma, a former insurance executive who came to power in 2007 in elections generally considered free and fair, will face off against former junta leader Julius Maada Bio. Full story…

See more images related to Sierra Leone on PhotoBlog

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Rebecca Blackwell / AP

Opposition candidate Julius Maada Bio waves to supporters as his campaign convoy drives through the Kissy neighborhood, en route to his final campaign rally in Freetown, Sierra Leone, Nov. 15.

Rebecca Blackwell / AP

Supporters of opposition candidate Julius Maada Bio fill the street as his campaign convoy drives through the Kissy neighborhood, en route to Bio's final campaign rally in Freetown, Sierra Leone, Nov. 15. A few supporters displayed symbolic, or real, guns to symbolize the laying down of arms in favor of a non-violent election process.

Joe Penney / Reuters

A military police officer stands guard at the final campaign rally for Sierra Leone opposition presidential candidate Julius Maada Bio in downtown Freetown, Nov. 15. Incumbent President Ernest Bai Koroma, a former insurance executive who came to power in 2007 in elections generally considered free and fair, will face off against former junta leader Bio.

Rebecca Blackwell / AP

A supporter of opposition candidate Julius Maada Bio rests on a stadium field as he waits for Bio to arrive at his final campaign rally in Freetown, Sierra Leone, Nov. 15.

Adriane Ohanesian / Reuters

A Toposa boy walks along the Singaita River where gold has been found in Namorinyang, South Sudan.

Adriane Ohanesian / Reuters

A Toposa woman looks for gold in the Singaita River in Namorinyang, South Sudan.

Adriane Ohanesian / Reuters

A man digs a hole in search of gold in Napotpot, South Sudan.

Adriane Ohanesian / Reuters

A Toposa boy takes a rest after digging for gold in Napotpot, South Sudan.

Adriane Ohanesian / Reuters

A trader weighs his gold in a shop in Kapoeta, South Sudan.

Adriane Ohanesian / Reuters

A Toposa girl pans for gold in the Singaita River in Namorinyang, South Sudan.

Adriane Ohanesian / Reuters

Jackson Locheto from Kenya uses a gold detector in Nanakanak, South Sudan.

In South Sudan ordinary people have been extracting gold from artisanal mines and taking part in as-yet unregulated trade in the precious metal.

Reuters reports, dozens of Toposa tribesmen and women, festooned with plastic necklaces, brass piercings and beaded amulets, hack away at the red soil with metal poles and shovels, digging small craters in a boozy revelry.

"Everything is luck," said Leer Likuam on the edge of a shallow trench through a translator. On an average day he might dig up six grams, worth around 1,200 South Sudanese pounds ($270), he said. "Some days you're lucky."

Once he found a 200-gram gold nugget bigger than his thumb, boasts Likuam.

On the international market, Likuam's prize lump would fetch $11,000, an enormous sum in a country where the average teacher earns just 360 South Sudanese pounds, about $90, per month.

But now the government hopes to pass mining legislation that will formalize the industry, let them tax precious metal and mineral exports and sell concessions to large-scale investors. Read the complete article.

All images were captured by Reuters photographer Adriane Ohanesian in September and October 2012, but made available to NBC News today.

Adriane Ohanesian / Reuters

A shirt hangs in the window of a Sarko alcohol shop in Kapoeta, South Sudan.

Adriane Ohanesian / Reuters

A bowl holding small flakes of gold sits in the middle of Singaita River in Namorinyang, South Sudan.

Adriane Ohanesian / Reuters

A view of the Singaita River which flows down from the Lauro mountains and through Kapoeta, South Sudan.

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Tony Karumba / AFP - Getty Images

A female inmate peers out through the grills of a metallic prison gate at Juba's central prison in South Sudan.

Tony Karumba / AFP - Getty Images

An inmate standd astride an open waste water gulley with shackles around his ankles at the prison yard of Rumbek's central prison in South Sudan.

Tony Karumba / AFP - Getty Images

Prison wardens carry out an inspection of the kitchens at Juba's central prison in South Sudan.

GRAPHIC WARNING: Contains images which some viewers may find disturbing.

In Juba, the ramshackle capital of South Sudan, the world's newest nation, over 100 people await execution in filthy and crowded prisons. Human rights activists say conditions break basic freedoms, with many inmates never having even seen a lawyer, or even knowing their charges.

In June, Human Rights Watch issued a report that found that prisoners in South Sudan were often detained arbitrarily, often not charged with crimes and frequently not provided with lawyers for their defense. The report said some prisoners were detained for up to five years without trial. Continue reading AP article.

Impoverished South Sudan was left in ruins after decades of war with Sudan before separating in 2011 after a landslide independence referendum. But like so much in the country, the legal system was left in tatters, with sometimes conflicting, overlapping systems of justice.

All images captured Oct. 23-26 by AFP - Getty Images photographer Tony Karumba, but made available to NBC News today. 

Tony Karumba / AFP - Getty Images

Inmates get ready to dish out food to other prisoners for their evening meal at Rumbek's central prison in South Sudan

Tony Karumba / AFP - Getty Images

Inmates, who are shackled together at the ankles, bathe at a water point at Rumbek's central prison in South Sudan.

- / AFP - Getty Images

A mentally ill inmate at Juba's central prison in South Sudan is locked-up in solitary confinement.

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Gaia Anderson / AP

Libyans celebrate one year since the country declared liberation from former dictator Muammar Gaddafi, at Martyrs Square in Tripoli, Libya, Oct. 23, 2012.

Gaia Anderson / AP

Libyans celebrate one year since the country declared liberation from former dictator Muammar Gaddafi, at Martyrs Square in Tripoli, Libya, Oct. 23.

Reuters reports — The Libyan army and allied militias have seized control of strategic buildings in the former Gaddafi stronghold of Bani Walid, a military spokesman said on Tuesday, as Libya marked the first anniversary of its "liberation" from Muammar Gaddafi.

Thousands have fled the violence in the isolated hilltop town, which was one of the last to surrender to rebels last year, and has been at the center of a bloody standoff this month between rival militias whose ferocity has underscored the extent of instability in the North African country.

Slideshow: The uprising against Gadhafi

Colonel Ali al-Shekhili said the army, which was backed by a group of militias known as "Libya's Shield" who are loyal to the defense ministry, had pushed into the center of Bani Walid some 170 km (105 miles) south of Tripoli. Full story…

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Gaia Anderson / AP

Libyans celebrate one year since the country declared liberation from former dictator Muammar Gaddafi, at Martyrs Square in Tripoli, Libya, Oct. 23.

EPA

Libyan government fighters prepare ammunition before an advance towards the entrance to the town of Bani Walid, Libya, Oct. 23. Bani Walid is witnessing clashes between the army and some loyalists of the former Gaddafi regime. The Libyan army has seized most of the south-eastern town of Bani Walid, where it is pursuing a campaign against rogue militias, according to media reports from Oct. 22. The Libyan army launched a massive-scale attack on Bani Walid on Oct. 20 after a siege of more than two weeks.

EPA

Libyan government fighters advance towards the town of Bani Walid, Libya, Oct. 23.

Dai Kurokawa / EPA

Anastase Tabaro, a self-taught engineer, walks by a stream near his hydroelectricity generating station in Rutare, Rwanda.

Dai Kurokawa / EPA

Anastase Tabaro at a friend's home in Rutare, 45km north of the capital Kigali.

The European Pressphoto Agency reports — Anastase Tabaro, a self-taught engineer who had just six years of elementary-level education as a child, has built a hydroelectric system that provides power to some 700 households in and around his village in rural Rwanda.

The 59-year-old started his research in 1990 with the ultimate ambition of selling power to his neighbors, none of whom had access to electricity at that time. He built a turbine and constructed a barrage dam that he channels water from to power a generator. 

"I grew up in [neighboring] Democratic Republic of Congo and my village had electricity," Tabaro says. "Then my family moved to Rwanda and our village had no electricity. I felt I couldn't live without electricity so I started to research by myself."

Dai Kurokawa / EPA

Tabaro sets up a television to play a DVD at his friend's home.

Locals come to Tabaro's home to charge their cellphones, for which he charges them 20 cents apiece.

According to kumatoo.com, a website dedicated to celebrating the ingenuity of the African people, news of Tabaro's achievements has reached the capital.

The Rwandan government decided to support this project by installing electrical poles in the village to supply electricity to a dozen homes, including the church.

With electricity, it is no longer necessary in Ngororero to cut wood for cooking or to use petrol for lighting. Electricity has changed the lives of the villagers (continue reading).

Some have even bought televisions and DVD players now that they have electricity supplied by Tabaro's system. "It's like a magic. Now my family can enjoy watching a movie, listening to a radio at our home. He's our man, our hero," a resident of Rutate village says.

The Guardian on Paul Kagame's Rwanda: African success story or authoritarian state?

According to the government, only 14 percent of Rwandans had access to electricity in 2011.

Dai Kurokawa / EPA

Tabaro stands next to a barrage he constructed to control the amount of water passing the dam.

Dai Kurokawa / EPA

Tabaro sits next to a turbine generator he has built inside his generating station.

Dai Kurokawa / EPA

People take shelter from the rain in Rutare village.

EDITOR'S NOTE: These photos were taken in May 2012 and made available to NBC News today.

Further tales of engineering exploits on PhotoBlog:

• Building an African space program from the ground up
• Auto-mechanic builds DIY airplane for $395 
• Homemade Lamborghini replica draws admiring glances

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