Congo to allow completion of some foreign adoptions despite 2013 ban

KINSHASA, Congo – An official says Congo will next week allow the first foreign adoptions to be completed since a ban was implemented in late 2013.

In late 2013, Congo announced a ban on foreign adoptions, citing reports that children had been mistreated or abandoned by their adoptive families while others had been "sold to homosexuals."

Albert Paka, judicial adviser at the country's interior ministry, told The Associated Press Saturday that 71 children whose adoptions were being processed when the ban was announced would be allowed starting Monday to join families in five countries including the U.S. and Belgium. He did not specify the other three countries.

Paka said the ban on new adoptions remained in place but that Congo was reviewing around 1,000 cases of children whose adoptions were already in progress.