Fighting that erupted on Friday between a Mayi-Mayi militia and a Rwandan rebel group in South Kivu Province, eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), has resulted in the displacement of thousands of civilians, with an as-yet undetermined number of wounded and dead, the UN peacekeeping mission in the country, MONUC, reported on Monday.

The repatriation of 350 refugees from the Central African Republic to the Democratic Republic of Congo has been delayed further pending the holding of more meetings to discuss details for the operation. "There are pre-conditions to be met before the repatriation begins," Jean Kitambala, the director for civil protection and refugees at the Congolese Ministry of Interior, told IRIN.

A United Nations investigative team has abruptly dropped its corruption allegations against seven Canadian mining firms operating in the Congo. "Resolved - no further action required," is how the team now labels its files on the seven, as outlined to the U.N. Security Council last Thursday in a report that offers almost no explanation.

Symplice Kalunga wa Kalunga, a journalist and host of the political affairs programme "Nouvelle donne", which airs on the private television network Channel Media Broadcasting (CMB), was arrested at the network's headquarters on October 29. He was taken in for questioning by police detectives possessing a summons, who were accompanied by armed members of the national police. The journalist was assaulted at the time of arrest, forced into a vehicle and handcuffed while being taken to the Kinshasa/Gombe Public Prosecutor's Office.

One hundred and twenty five companies and individuals have been listed in a report for having contributed directly or indirectly to the conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). A United Nations committee investigating the plunder of gems and minerals in the DRC said: "Illegal exploitation remains one of the main sources of funding for groups involved in perpetuating conflict." The DRC has reserves of gems, cobalt, copper, gold, timber, uranium and coltan, a component for electronic chips in cell phones and laptop computers.

The transitional government in Kinshasa must give the highest priority to stopping, urgently and immediately, the horrendous cycle of human rights abuse still prevailing in eastern DRC, said Irene Khan, Secretary General of Amnesty International, at the end of her visit in Kinshasa.

There has been an increase in human rights violations associated with the return of DRC government (FAC) troops to the territory of Malemba Nkulu on 5 September 2003, reports Action Against Hunger. Malemba Nkulu Territory has been the centre of a power struggle between FAC and the MayiMayi local militia since early 2002 attributing to a precarious humanitarian situation for much of the 230,000 civilians living in this area.

UN forces have begun to deploy outside of Bunia, the main town of Ituri Province in northeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Maj-Gen Mountaga Diallo said at a news conference on Wednesday in the capital, Kinshasa.

At least 23 people, the majority of them women and children, were hacked or shot to death Monday in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the UN said, in the first reported massacre since UN peacekeepers began patrolling the troubled northeast last month.

Despite concerted efforts by relief agencies, a recurring outbreak of cholera continues to affect Kasai Oriental Province and the city of Mbuji-Mayi, in particular, in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the International Federation of the Red Cross reported last Thursday.

Funding shortfalls in support of some 15,000 refugees from Ituri District of northeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) residing in Nebbi District of northwestern Uganda have impacted negatively on efforts to provide adequate aid, the International Federation of the Red Cross reported on Monday.

Former rebel groups in the Democratic Republic of the Congo have been authorised to function as political parties, according to Theophile Mbemba, minister of the interior, decentralisation and national security of the nation's recently-inaugurated two-year transitional government.

In a major operation on September 26, Congolese National Police officers seized most newspapers and magazines on sale in Kinshasa streets. According to eyewitnesses, at least a dozen newspaper vendors were arrested and taken to various police stations and detention centres in the city, including the Lufungula military base in Kinshasa/Lingwala. No official reason has been given to explain the police operation.

The Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) said on Friday in The Hague that it would investigate the role of business operating in Europe, Asia and North America in fuelling crimes against humanity in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

A private rural radio station in North Kivu Province of eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has been banned from broadcasting since 16 September by a local government administrator, Congolese media rights NGO Journaliste en danger (JED) reported on Wednesday. JED said that Radio Communautaire Ushirika (Racou) in Kiwanja, Rutshuru territory of North Kivu, had failed to obtain authorisation from the provincial governor, Eugene Serufuli, before beginning broadcasts.

Dissidents in a rebel group in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) are trying to undermine the peace process in the strife-torn Central African state, an international rights watchdog charged on Tuesday. "According to our information some officers of the Congolese Rally for Democracy [RCD] who have split from their movement are trying to undermine the peace process in the DRC from a base in Kisangani," the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) warned in a statement from the capital Kinshasa.

The International Foundation for Education and Self-Help (IFESH) is a leading international, non-profit, non-governmental organization focusing on human resource development, primarily in sub-Saharan Africa. IFESH is seeking a long- term Program Coordinator and six short-term consultants for a community-based program to reintegrate ex-combatants in northern Katanga Province.

A human rights group has called for the immediate release of nine human rights activists arrested for protesting school fees in the city of Lubumbashi, southeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). The Association Africaine de Defense des Droits de l'Homme (ASADHO/Katanga) said the nine men and women were arrested by the Police Nationale Congolaise on 8 September after organising a peaceful protest against what they believed to be unreasonable school tuition fees. They were demanding that the state assume its responsibilities in supporting education, as many children had been forced to leave school, unable to pay the fees.

This paper offers analysis and political reflection that tries to look behind the issues in the Congo and identify the roots of the problems. Some of the issues addressed is the present situation in North Kivu against the background of the history of the region and the political, social, economic and cultural situation of the South. It is claimed that in this region people speak too often in empty slogans without touching the concrete reality that the population is experiencing, and especially without talking about the failures of civil society.

The ruthless exploitation of Congo's children by leaders of armed forces to further their own material and political ends is the most egregious example of human rights abuses in the entire conflict in the Congo, Amnesty International says in a new report. The recruitment and use of children under 18 in armed conflict constitute war crimes and, as such, they are crimes against the entire international community, not just against children in the DRC, said the report.