The reintegration of thousands of refugees around Dongo in Democratic Republic of the Congo's Equateur province is surpassing expectations and could encourage others to return from neighbouring Republic of Congo. But despite the positive reintegration trends and the high level of returns, the lack of funding for UNHCR's voluntary repatriation programme for Congolese refugees remains a significant problem that could ultimately affect returns planned for the second half of this year.

A journalist imprisoned in the Democratic Republic of Congo since April on defamation charges was secretly convicted and sentenced to four months in jail over a week ago, according to a release from the Committee to Protect Journalists. The Kinshasa-based organization, Journaliste en Danger (JED), told the Committee to Protect Journalists that one of its lawyers found evidence of the verdict in a court file while researching a separate case, reports Journalism.co.za.

With the largest and most challenging elections the United Nations has ever helped organize due to take place in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) in little over a month, Secretary-General Kofi Annan today called for full transparency of the process, voicing concern at reports of intimidation, corruption and detentions.

Official campaigning starts in two weeks in the Democratic Republic of Congo. But excitement at the symbolic arrival of ballot papers from South Africa has been tempered with concern about xenophobia and hate speech from some politicians, reports the Mail and Guardian.

The first 13 of 250 European Union (EU) election observers have arrived in Kinshasa, capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo, an official said on Friday 16 June. The observers, led by French Member of Parliament Phillipe Morillon, are in the country to observe the DRC's first general elections in 45 years. The polls are scheduled for 30 July.

An outbreak of plague in the northeastern district of Ituri in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has killed 20 people out of 70 cases identified in the last three weeks, health officials said on Friday. "The figure is expected to rise as more reports arrive," said Lendunga Wapayer, the medical director of the Centre for Surveillance and Control of Plague in the northeast.

Upcoming elections in the DR Congo are moving ahead under good conditions, but technical problems should be expected, equal media access for all parties must be assured and the poll must be followed by speedy development of national institutions, the head of a Security Council delegation just back from the central African country told the 15-member body on Friday, 16 June 2006, in New York.

On 16 June 2006, Michel Mukebayi Nkoso, the publication director of the Kinshasa-based weekly "Africa News", appeared before the Gombe Deputy Public Prosecutor, Edmond Isofa Nkanga. One of the country's four vice presidents, Jean-Pierre Bemba, filed a complaint accusing the journalist of defamation.

The international community should help the new government in the Democratic Republic of Congo tighten its surveillance of the diamond mining industry to lift the poor nation out of corruption and conflict, long associated with trade in the precious gem, a rights group said.

The men and women in Yasira market have no illusions about the upcoming elections in the Democratic Republic of Congo and the benefit their votes will bring. "We expect presents from candidates, otherwise we will not vote for them," said 20-year-old Lobela Lionda.

The International Secretariat of OMCT has been informed by the African Association for the Protection of Human Rights (Association africaine de défense des droits de l'homme - ASADHO), members of the SOS torture network, of the arbitrary arrest and detention of Mr. Mukadi Bonyi, lawyer at the Supreme Court of Justice and member of the Council of the Union for the reconstruction of Congo (Conseil de l'Union pour la reconstruction du Congo - UREC), a political party.

Thousands of Congolese on Monday took to the streets of the capital, Kinshasa, to demand negotiations that would see the main opposition party included in the country's electoral process. The demonstration came a day after a United Nations Security Council delegation arrived for a visit. Most of the demonstrators were supporters of the Union pour la democratie et le progres social (UDPS), which is led by veteran politician Etienne Tshisekedi and is boycotting the 30 July elections.

When U.N. Security Council members visit the Democratic Republic of Congo on June 11 and 12, they should insist that the transitional government protect the rights of journalists and human rights defenders, who have increasingly come under attack ahead of the coming elections, Human Rights Watch said in a briefing paper released on Friday 9 June.

As the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) prepares to hold its first elections in more than 40 years on 30 July 2006, Journaliste en danger (JED), Human Rights Watch and the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) are warning that a spate of attacks against journalists and human rights activists in recent weeks could foster a climate of self-censorship in the media and deprive voters of important information.

A 20-member advance team of the European Union (EU) force charged with safeguarding the first general elections in 45 years in the Congo has arrived in the capital, Kinshasa, a spokesman for the force said on Thursday. Some 16 EU countries are contributing troops to this force, mandated to support the UN Mission in the DRC, known as MONUC, which already has a 17,500-strong force in the country.

The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) plans to woo investors next month to fund the expansion of its Inga hydroelectricity project at a cost of $40bn, its energy minister said. The largest single hydropower initiative in the world - expected to cost nearly twice the price of the giant Three Gorges dam in China - Inga in the western DRC is seen as key to powering up stretches of central and southern Africa.

Patrice Booto, the editor of the tri-weekly Le Journal and its supplement Pool Malebo, has been sentenced to six months in prison and a fine of 500 dollars that must be paid within a week or his prison term will be extended by three months. The sentence was passed by a lower court in Assossa after it found him guilty of insulting the president and government.

Hundreds of combatants in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) are said to be joining a nascent militia based in the north-east of the country: the Congolese Revolutionary Movement (Mouvement Revolutionnaire Congolaise, MRC). This comes just weeks before the first nation-wide elections to be held in 40 years, and is undermining prospects for a successful poll.

The vast rainforests of the Democratic Republic of Congo - the second largest on Earth after the Amazon - have been seen by the World Bank as a target area. In 2002, the Bank provided funding for the government of DRC to develop a new set of laws for the management of DRC's forests. In September 2003, the Board of the Bank also approved a pilot project to 'zone' Congo's forests into areas for industrial logging, conservation, and community use. The project entitled 'Emergency Economic and Social Reunification and Support Project' (EESRSP), included $4 million to start the process of 'zoning' DRC's forests, potentially opening up tens of millions of hectares for industrial logging, reports the Rainforest Foundation.

Congo arrested a group of foreign security guards, including three Americans, on suspicion of plotting a coup ahead of national elections, a government official said Wednesday. But a United Nations official cast doubt on the claim and said the UN was confident the country would remain calm for the country's long-delayed vote, now set for July 30.
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