The United Nations peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has dispatched patrols to the country's volatile eastern region after some of the worst fighting since a peace deal was signed in January broke out earlier today between Government forces and armed rebel groups.

On 27 August 2008, the French government and the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) signed an agreement for one million euros for the urban, municipal and local elections, planned for 2009. This contribution is on top of those received from the UNDP, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, Italy and the European Commission.

Players and officials of Enyimba who arrived in Kinshasa on Thursday ahead of the CAF Champions League game with TP Mazembe have been left stranded.

THE Uganda Revenue Authority has impounded a truck that was allegedly carrying smuggled bitenge clothes from the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Heavy fighting erupted yesterday morning between the DR Congo government forces and rebels of renegade commander, Gen. Laurent Nkunda near the Ugandan border district of Kisoro.

Human rights and local government officials in Democratic Republic of Congo's Katanga province have expressed concern about rising tension between different communities in a mining town there.

The DR Congo government desperately wants to have Rwandan rebels disarmed and sent off its territory but does not seem to have the necessary means, the Presidential Great Lakes Envoy said today.

Both Alan Doss, the Special Representative of the UN Secretary General in the DRC and head of MONUC and Roland Van de Geer, the EU's Special Representative for the Great Lakes Region Wednesday acknowledged that implementing the Nairobi accord is a difficult undertaking.

For years, African militias have used proceeds from precious natural resources to fund conflicts - a practice dramatized in the 2006 Hollywood film "Blood Diamond." Now, there's a new twist: blood cows, reports the Christian Science Monitor.

Through its logistical and organisational support, MONUC's Civil Affairs section actively contributed to the success of 11 provincial workshops with civil society representatives and state officials which were held simultaneously in each province of the DRC from 22-24 August 2008, in preparation for the Third High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness*, which will be held from 2-4 September 2008 in ...

A senior Congolese politician Mr. Azarias Ruberwa is of the view that Africa has a lot to learn from the political maturity that is being displayed at the U.S. Democratic Party Convention in Denver, RNA reports.

Leprosy is under control in Democratic Republic of Congo where the number of cases being reported has fallen dramatically, health officials said.

The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), has not yet sent its representatives to the Secretariat of the Economic Community of the Great Lakes Countries (CEPGL), neither has it submitted its annual contributions to the organization for two years.

In Africa's worst conflicts, victims' voices are rarely heard during the elite debate that treats peace and justice as though they were an either-or.

THE United Nations peacekeeping force in the Democratic Republic of Congo (MONUC) is repairing Mpondwe Bridge in Kasese district.

THE UN peacekeeping force in the DR Congo (MONUC) has accused the Lord's Resistance Army of attacking civilians in the eastern provinces of Ituri and Orientale.

On Thursday 21 August 2008, UN medals were awarded to the MONUC Senegalese contingent in Kisangani, as well as thirteen military observers. The ceremony took place in the presence of the political and civil authorities of Orientale province and those of MONUC.

Despite considerable progress in disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration (DDR) in Ituri district, northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), pockets of resistance by militia groups are causing tension in a region recovering from years of civil war, officials told IRIN.

SECOND-HAND traders in western Uganda have abandoned Kampala's second hand clothes suppliers for the Congolese market.

Ugandan military officials have appealed to their DR Congo counterparts to step up security and check crime along the border. The appeal was made during a cross-border security meeting at Kihihi town council hall in Kanungu on August 19.

Participants to the tripartite meeting amongst the governments of Angola and of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) as well as the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), held last August 21-22 in Cabinda city, far northern Angolan province, Sunday recommended the revalidation of agreements with amendments, due to the current situation.

A submission by Human Rights Watch to the Committee on the Rights of the Child for its period review of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) presents information on the following human rights abuses:

The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) is probing the mass expulsion of Congolese nationals from northern Angola, with as many as 85,000 people being forced across the border by authorities in the past three months alone.

Thousands of patients in health care centres in the Democratic Republic of Congo capital Kinshasa are being deprived of urgent medical care after a strike by doctors and health workers entered its fifth day.

MONUC's Tunisian contingent organised a health caravan on the Congo river for the local villages of Lenga-Lenga and Lossalo in the area of Kwamouth, in the province of Bandundu, 195km northeast of Kinshasa, during the riverine patrol which took place from 16-21 August 2008.