Continued insecurity and poor roads have been restricting humanitarian access to thousands of internally displaced people in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), according to an official of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

The DRC is in a post-conflict reconstruction period. Until now, ICTs have not been considered part of reconstruction and excluded in development schemes for the country. A report produced by Lina Gjerstad from Alternatives, a Canadian social rights NGO, which has worked in the DRC since 2002, posits that the four ICT challenges are: lack of infrastructure, lack of a broad-based ICT vision for the country, absence of properly defined institutional roles and responsibilities, and lack of public funds and human resources.

Authorities in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s capital, Kinshasa, convicted a journalist in secret and ordered him to report to prison immediately. He had never been told that he was charged with a crime. On July 5, Pold Kalombo, an editor of the private weekly Le Soft International received a notice of a May 18 judgment that convicted him and his newspaper, by default, on defamation charges filed by an oil company, the director of the newspaper, Mike Mukebayi, told CPJ.

"Few humanitarian organisations, despite the availability of funding, have stepped forward to help" civilians in Congo Kinshasa's eastern North Kivu province, activists complain in a new report. More than 160,000 Congolese have abandoned their homes in North Kivu since January 2007, when Tutsi warlord Laurent Nkunda began deploying troops across the province.

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) hascalled on the government of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to put pressure on the board of the private media group Raga SPRL so that 9 arbitrarily dismissed union delegates can return to work as agreed a month ago with the mediation of the Labour Minister.

Esther Wakilongo, a journalist with privately-owned Vision Shala Television (VSTV), was detained by Lieutenant-Colonel Anicet Muhimuzi, head of intelligence for the national police, while she was covering the parade organised for the anniversary of the country's independence in Bukavu (the largest city in South Kivu province, in the country's east). Although she presented her press card, the lieutenant-colonel seized her camera on the grounds that she did not possess "the badge granting authorisation to take pictures."

Congo: Consolidating the Peace, the latest report from the International Crisis Group, examines President Joseph Kabila’s new government and warns that the real gains that have been made are at serious risk. While the transition helped unify the divided country and improved security in much of it, governing institutions remain weak, abusive or non-existent, and the national army is still the country’s worst human rights abuser while another crisis is looming in the East.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights has voiced concern at the recent decision by a military court in the Democratic Republic of the Congo to acquit all defendants of killings, torture and other abuses that occurred during an operation by the country’s armed forces.

You will be required to conduct and co-ordinate research activities, take a lead in developing, implementing and communicating a research programme of human rights work including thematic areas. You will have proven research skills and knowledge of Central Africa, and in particular the Democratic Republic of Congo. You will be a dynamic and team oriented person with first hand experience of the region with awareness and understanding of its cultures.

Attacks on civilians and clashes between Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Rwandan rebels have hindered efforts to reach affected populations in the east, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said. The attacks were mainly perpetrated by the Forces démocratiques pour la libération du Rwanda (FDLR) rebels, who fled their country after the 1994 genocide and have continued to resist the Forces armées de la République Démocratique du Congo (FARDC).

Intermittent clashes and frequent attacks on civilians by armed groups in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) have created a state of permanent displacement in the volatile central African country, an official of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said. "There are a million internally displaced persons [IDPs], but each time there is a successful return of IDPs, there are new displacements because of conflicts elsewhere," said Judy Cheng-Hopkins, UNHCR's assistant high commissioner for operations.

Delegates from 20 African countries began talks in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) on Tuesday on the process of disarming and reintegrating former combatants to boost peace and development on the violence-wracked continent.

Journalist Serge Maheshe, who was news editor of the Bukavu office of UN-backed Radio Okapi, was shot by gunmen as he was about to get into his UN-marked car in a residential neighbourhood. “A great journalist, who did honour to his profession in a country that has suffered terribly, has been the victim of a targeted murder by determined men who were waiting to kill him,” Reporters Without Borders said.

At a conference of religious leaders in the troubled eastern region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), a United Nations humanitarian official has said dialogue among parties is a cornerstone for the protection of civilians caught in the conflict.

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Louise Arbour, has criticised the appalling conditions in prisons in the Democratic Republic of Congo, while also suggesting the authorities compile an inventory of earlier serious human rights violations. "Congo’s prisons are overpopulated because there are many prolonged detentions as most detainees don’t have access to justice," she said.

Suspected Rwandan rebels kidnapped at least six people on Thursday in Congo's eastern South Kivu province where 18 villagers were killed in a raid a few days ago, United Nations and army officials said. The kidnappers, believed to be members of the Hutu-dominated Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), entered a village in Kabere district, 30 km (19 miles) northwest of the provincial capital, Bukavu, around 1 a.m. local time.

Reporters Without Borders has called for the release of Bosange Mbaka, a reporter with the Kinshasa-based publication "Mambenga", who was arrested six months ago in a round-up of presumed sympathisers of former presidential candidate Jean-Pierre Bemba. Nicknamed "Che Guevara," Mbaka is from Equateur province, a Bemba stronghold. He was charged with stealing military property for picking up a mobile phone dropped by a soldier.

Thousands of civilians who were forced to flee their homes several years ago after incursions into the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) by armed groups from southern Sudan, should be resettled, the administrator of Dungu territory in northeastern DRC has said. "These people have not been able to return to their villages since 1999," Leandres Bwiulu said.

At least 40 children are among thousands of newly displaced civilians in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) fleeing ongoing clashes between Congolese armed forces and Rwandan rebels, officials said. "These newly displaced people come from the Ufamando group and the Gungu area," Kemal Saiki, spokesman for the United Nations Mission in Congo (MONUC) said on 23 May.

Congo opposition lawmakers and human rights campaigners on Thursday dismissed as a whitewash a parliament report on a government crackdown against opposition protesters in which more than 100 people were killed. They said the report on the violence in western Bas-Congo province on Jan. 31 and Feb. 1 was a setback for efforts to promote good governance in Democratic Republic of Congo, which last year held its first free elections in over four decades.