The former vice-president of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Jean-Pierre Bemba, has been transferred to The Hague in the Netherlands for trial on war crimes charges - including accusations of sexual crimes committed in the Central African Republic (CAR).

A Congolese militia leader facing war crimes charges for allegedly recruiting child soldiers could walk free in five days without standing trial.

Today, 3 July 2008, the Belgian authorities surrendered and transferred Mr Jean-Pierre Bemba Gombo, to the International Criminal Court. He arrived at 12:45 at the detention centre of the Court.

Following its decision imposing a stay on the proceedings of the case The Prosecutor v. Thomas Lubanga Dyilo, Trial Chamber I ordered today the release of the accused.

Alan Doss, Special Representative of the UN Secretary General in the DRC, paid his first visit to Kananga in Kasai Occidental province this week. On 30 June 2008, the anniversary of the DRC's independence, Mr. Doss attended a civil and military procession alongside president Joseph Kabila, government and parliamentary representatives, and diplomatic corps and international institution ...

A team of local entrepreneurs and company executives will visit the Democratic Republic of Congo's Katanga province later this week to explore investment opportunities and to negotiate softer tax regimes in the area.

An outbreak of monkey pox in Democratic Republic of Congo's (DRC) Equateur province has killed 22 of the 470 people infected since the start of 2008, according to medical officials.

ZIMBABWEANS should now come together and work for development of their country following the successful conclusion of the presidential run-off that had divided the country, Democratic Republic of Congo Ambassador to Zimbabwe Mr Mawampanga Mwana Nanga has said.

Communities that carry out illegal diamond mining on the border between Angola and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) will benefit from social projects meant to improve their living conditions, informed this Monday here the deputy minister of Geology and Mining, Makenda Ambroise.

Violence in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo's embattled North Kivu province this year has boosted the total number of internally displaced people (IDPs) to some 857,000. The scale and fluidity of the crisis, coupled with the fact that many of the displaced live with families rather than in camps, has led aid workers to adapt their responses.

The trial before the International Criminal Court (ICC) of Thomas Lubanga, former president of the Union of Congolese Patriots (UPC), a militia from eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), accused of war crimes for having forcibly enlisted children, is still at a standstill after the hearing last Tuesday on the possibility of releasing the defendant after the decision rendered ten days earlier ...

Travel to and work in the adjacent eastern Democratic Republic of Congo town of Rutshuru and Kiwanja village have resumed after riots curtailed such activities on 23 and 24 June, according to the UN.

The International Day in Support of Victims of Torture is held every year on June 26. We interviewed MONUC Human Rights division deputy director Mr. Louis Marie Bouaka, who gave an assessment of the situation, and the measures being taken in the fight against torture and cruel and degrading treatment in the DRC.

The wave of violence against foreign migrants in South Africa has received a large coverage in the Angolan media. The general tone in the independent press has been one of anger.

Monday 23 June 2008 marked the official launch in Bukavu of the public awareness campaign entitled "Zero Children Associated with Armed Forces and Groups," sponsored by the DR Congo's First Lady Mrs. Olive Kabila, and organised by the National Programme of Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration (UEPN-DDR, ex CONADER).

The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has not expressed interest in the affairs of the East African Community (EAC). As such the five partner states cannot intervene in its affairs.

Humanitarian agencies have suspended all travel to the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo town of Rutshuru after two days of riots against the UN Mission in the Congo (MONUC), UN sources said.

Although the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) does not seem to be recruiting children in Uganda, women and children are still present in its ranks, and the rebel group is allegedly enlisting young people from neighbouring countries, according to a United Nations report released today.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today welcomed the entry into force of the Pact on Security, Stability and Development in the Great Lakes Region after its ratification by eight African countries.

A Swiss court has ordered eight million Swiss francs to be unblocked in favour of the heirs of Mobutu Sese Seko, the former dictator of Zaire. The Swiss are trying to convince the government of the Democratic Republic of Congo to send an envoy to collect the money in the name of the Congolese people, but Kinshasa doesn't seem to care.

The International Criminal Court’s decision to halt the first case to come to trial does not diminish the gravity of the charges filed in any of the cases pending before the court or alter the fundamental importance of on-going investigations by the prosecutor’s office, the International Center for Transitional Justice said Monday.

The prime ministers of Norway and Britain have launched a 200 million dollar fund to tackle deforestation in the Congo Basin, the world's second largest tropical forest.

Mr. Alan Doss, the Special Representative of the UN Secretary General in the DRC, made his first official visit on 20-21 June 2008 to Lubumbashi, capital of Katanga province, since taking up his duties as head of the United Nations Organisation Mission in the DRC (MONUC).

Rwanda is home to a total of 55,645 refugees, out of whom 52,083 are Congolese, while 2,831 (5.5 percent) are Burundians, new UNHCR statistics have shown. UNHCR Representative to Rwanda, Annette R. Nyekan, told The New Times last week that other refugees come from either Kenya or Somalia. She was speaking on the occasion to mark World Refugee Day at 'Ecole Sainte Famille' in Kigali.

A total of 629 refugees from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda, Sudan, Sierra Leone, Senegal and Somalia settled at Camatende district centre, 12 kilometres south of Angola's northern Malange province, have been supplied with an assortment of basic goods.