An Inspection Panel report on the World Bank’s safeguard policy violations in its Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) forest sector operations prompts discussion on new approach and greater role for Pygmies in decision-making about the future of the world’s second-largest rainforest.

A United Nations-supported conference aimed at bringing peace, security and development to the strife-torn eastern region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is underway in North Kivu province, where fighting has uprooted hundreds of thousands of people in the past year. Over 1,000 delegates are taking part in the nine-day summit which began yesterday in Goma, the capital of North Kivu, where fighting has escalated in recent months between Government troops and rebels allied with the dissident army general, Laurent Nkunda, forcing hundreds of thousands of civilians to flee their homes.

Civilians fleeing violence in east Democratic Republic of Congo are facing a shortage of medical care as disease outbreaks begin to plague the troubled region,
the charity Médécins Sans Frontières (MSF) said on Wednesday. Fighting between government troops and forces loyal to renegade general Laurent Nkunda have pushed civilians from their homes several times in ongoing flare-ups which have intensified since August.

Democratic Republic of Congo has called a peace summit for Dec. 27 to try to end fighting between Tutsi dissidents, government forces and other fighters in its North Kivu province, officials said on Thursday. Several mediation efforts and military campaigns have failed to end years of fighting in the eastern province, where the presence of Rwandan Hutu fighters accused of leading their country's 1994 genocide has provoked conflicts, including Congo's 1998-2003 war.

United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres has called for an end to fighting in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and pledged to help improve conditions in camps there for tens of thousands of internally displaced persons (IDPs).

Of all the culprits for the crimes in the Congo, the Congolese elite are the most responsible, asserts George Bakaly Sembe. Since independence, but for a few years during Mobutu’s heydays, they have been unable to conjure up doctrines and policies in line with the status the Congo ought to hold in world affairs.

Over the past few months a lot of ink has flowed in mainstream publications about the situation in the Congo. In almost all of the articles, the underlying reason for the crisis in the Congo - the scramble for Congo’s spectacular natural wealth- has been consistently omitted or underplayed, write Maurice Carney and Carrie Crawford, of Friends of the Congo (FOTC).

Insurgents loyal to dissident general Laurent Nkunda, fighting government troops in North Kivu, eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), are still recruiting children into their ranks, even as serious human rights violations, including some committed by agents of the state, are rife in the region, according to the UN Mission in Congo (MONUC).

Rebels in the Democratic Republic of Congo loyal to General Laurent Nkunda have called for peace talks with the government to resolve the crisis. The rebels have pushed back army forces, regaining the territory lost in last week's government offensive. Up to now President Joseph Kabila has ruled out negotiations with Gen Nkunda.

Last week, the Financial Times published an article on the World Bank's errors in its forest operations in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and allegations of support for illegal logging in the country by the International Finance Corporation (IFC). Just two days later, the IFC announced it would sell its stake in Olam International Ltd., the Singaporean commodity trading company accused of "environmental malpractice" in the world's second largest rainforest.

The disarmament deal signed by the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda on 9 November 2007 is a landmark step in the peace process between both countries. But to finally cool tensions in Africa's turbulent Great Lakes region, all parties are going to have to now tackle the collapsing eastern Congolese province of North Kivu, writes David Mugnier.

The International Committee of the Red Cross on Thursday called on the army and rebels in the Democratic Republic of Congo to spare civilian lives in their latest bout of fighting in the country's conflict-ravaged east. The neutral humanitarian agency voiced special concern at the fate of women in North Kivu province, who it said were especially vulnerable to rape in the midst of "mass exodus" linked to the flare-up in violence.

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has urged the new government of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to order an immediate investigation into a minister after he reportedly ordered police officers to beat two journalists in his office in retaliation for a critical news report.

United Nations peacekeepers will help the Democratic Republic of Congo's (DRC) army disarm eastern dissident groups by force in violence-plagued North Kivu province, UN and Congolese commanders said. Army soldiers and fighters loyal to renegade Tutsi general Laurent Nkunda clashed again on Thursday a few kilometres from Rutshuru, where the dissidents attacked an army base a day earlier and forced thousands of civilians to flee.

The UN refugee agency has opened a new field office in Rutshuru, a district capital swamped by displaced Congolese in the volatile province of North Kivu. But the opening of the bureau on Wednesday was marred by a fresh outbreak of fighting close to the centre of Rutshuru town that forced thousands of people to flee their homes in search of safety. The conflict set back plans to launch new camp management and coordination operations in the area.

The United Nations peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has announced that an independent investigation has begun into allegations of violent sexual abuse by a soldier serving with the force in the troubled northeast of the country. Investigators from the UN Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) are already on the ground in Bunia, the capital of Ituri district, to conduct the probe, according to a press release issued by the mission (known as MONUC).

"This thing of rape," said Colonel Edmond Ngarambe, shifting uneasily on his wooden bench high in the mountains of the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, "I can't deny that happens. We are human beings. But it's not just us. The Mai Mai, the government soldiers who are not paid, the Rastas do the same thing. And some people sent by our enemies do it to cause anger against us.

Up to 40,000 people poured out of two camps for displaced civilians near the main town in Democratic Republic of Congo’s North Kivu province after fierce fighting broke out nearby, according to the UN. “Shooting, some from heavy weapons, could be heard this [13 November] morning near the camps. Between 30,000 and 40,000 people who were living there are on the road to Goma,” said Louis Igneault, spokesman for the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

The trial of the first Congolese warlord to be tried for war crimes charges at the International Criminal Court in The Hague has been set for 31 March 2008. Thomas Lubanga, 46, who founded and led a militia group in DRC's Ituri district, was arrested in 2006. He was accused of enlisting and conscripting children below 15 to kill members Lendu ethnic group during the country's war between 1998 and 2003.

Police have arrested seven people, including a number of law enforcement officers, after radioactive mineral waste was poured into a river in the southeast Democratic Republic of Congo. "Seven people suspected of involvement in dumping ore are currently being questioned by police," Didace Pembe, environment minister, said.