For several years after war erupted in Côte d'Ivoire in 2002, children were recruited to fight on all sides of the conflict.

MORE than 200 people are stranded at Chembe on Luapula River after the pontoon broke down.

In a prelude to Europe Day which is celebrated on 9 May every year, European Union (EU) ambassadors and officials held a press conference in Kinshasa on 8 May 2008. During the conference they explained the role and activities of the EU in the reconstruction of the DRC.

Lord’s Resistance Army leader Joseph Kony’s failure to sign a peace deal in April drove a nail into the coffin of the Juba peace process—a process that is grinding to an unsuccessful end.[1]

Each year on May 8, World Red Cross Day is commemorated. A press conference to celebrate the event was chaired by Dominique Lutula, national president of the Red Cross in the DRC (CRRDC), on 8 May 2008, at the seat of the Central Committee of the Red Cross in the DRC.

The "Pooled Fund" which was established by the international community in 2006 and is coordinated by the United Nations has allocated $60 million to 163 humanitarian projects in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

UíAt least 21 citizens from the neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo who had been living illegally in Angola's northern Uíge province, will be repatriated on Wednesday by the local Foreigners and Migration Services (SME).

CONGO has called off any immediate negotiations to try and resolve the fresh conflict over a disputed border area in West Nile.

After the decision on 2 May 2008 by ARU's Territorial Administration to bring the Congolese border station of Ofo located inside the city of Aru to 300 m from the Ugandan station of Vura, that is 4 km farther, tensions suddenly went high between the Congolese and Ugandan authorities.

SERIOUS allegations persist against Indian and Pakistani officers serving under MONUC, the UN peacekeeping mission in Congo. According to a recent BBC report, some have been involved in illegal gold and weapons trafficking in eastern Congo.

The President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Joseph Kabila, received on 2 May 2008, the Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General (SRSG), Alan Doss, and Ambassadors of the United States, Great Britain, France, Belgium, South Africa and Angola.

US-based Human Rights Watch on May 1 wrote to the UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-Moon, accusing the United Nations of ignoring serious allegations of illegal arms and gold trafficking by soldiers of MONUC, the UN peacekeeping mission in Congo. Below are extracts.

Amid renewed human rights violations by FDLR rebels against Congolese civilians, Rwanda has said Kinshasa was slow in implementing its obligations under the November 9, 2007 Nairobi Communiqué signed between both countries.

The Public Information Section/ARU, in cooperation with the Gender Office, the "Forum des Mamans d'Aru" (ARU Women's Forum) and many NGOs that deal with the sexual violence issue, launched an awareness campaign on 2 May 2008 in that territory.

PRESIDENT Yoweri Museveni and his Tanzania counterpart, Jakaya Kikwete, are to convene an urgent meeting to address the issue of negative forces operating in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.

The revelation that Pakistani and Indian members of the United Nations Mission in the Congo sold weapons in exchange for minerals once again puts the UN under the spotlight.

The United Nations Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUC) has taken note of recent statements in the media accusing its Peacekeepers of supplying weapons to the Allied Democratic Forces/National Army for the Liberation of Uganda (ADF/NALU), a small rebel group based in north-eastern DRC.

The security situation in the east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo is relatively stable but fragile, the Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General in the DRC, Alan Doss, warned on 30 April 2008 during MONUC's weekly press conference.

"On January 23, 2008, after weeks of talks, the Congolese government signed a peace agreement in Goma, North Kivu, with 22 armed groups committing all parties to an immediate ceasefire and disengagement of forces from frontline positions. Yet since the signing, scores of civilians have been killed, hundreds of women and girls raped, and many more children recruited into armed service ...

Heads of state from the Great Lakes region would next month meet in Tanzania to address fresh security concerns, particularly in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Burundi.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon should urgently address the failings of the investigating arm of the United Nations and ensure that UN peacekeepers responsible for abuses are held to account, Human Rights Watch said today.

ZIMBABWE Stock Exchange-listed Cairns Holdings says its flagship subsidiary, Cairns Foods, is to embark on an export drive into the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and will revive its canned fruit exports to the United Kingdom.

The indictment against a militia leader whose alleged abuses span the Democratic Republic of Congo's war-ravaged east was finally made public at the end of April, almost two years after being delivered under seal to war crimes prosecutors.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) has announced an arrest warrant against Bosco Ntaganda, a former deputy Chief of Staff of Union of Patriotic Congolese (UPC), a militia group with its base in Ituri, eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

Congolese security officers have agreed to crackdown on gangs that steal Ugandan cars and sell them in the DR Congo.