A final report by the International Rescue Committee (IRC) on mortality rates in eastern DRC says the level and indiscriminate nature of violence since August 1998 is disturbing. It is estimated that one in every eight households has experienced a violent death since the start of the war, about 40 percent of which are women and children. The report stressed that the mortality rate in eastern DRC was extraordinarily high.

The UN Security Council on Thursday condemned the illegal exploitation of the natural resources and wealth of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), and expressed serious concern at those economic activities fuelling the conflict in the country. The condemnation followed a day-long open discussion of a report by a UN panel of experts charged with investigating the illegal exploitation of Congolese natural resources and other forms of wealth.

A new union of armed and unarmed opposition forces in the DRC has been formed, Radio France Internationale (RFI) reported on Thursday. The movement is called the "Union of Congolese forces for the Integral Respect of the Lusaka Accords and the holding of the inter-Congolese dialogue" (UFAD). The new movement's creation was announced by rebel MLC leader Jean-Pierre Bemba. It is supposed to be a uniting body of all the armed and unarmed parties.

The International Secretariat of OMCT is very concerned about the death penalty to which 4 children were condemned by the Military Court (COM, Cour d’Ordre Militaire) of the Democratic Republic of Congo. The Military Court is an
exceptional court from which no appeal is possible. In each of these cases the trials have allegedly been carried out summarily.

Angola's Interior Minister Fernando da Piedade has said the country's army intervened in the DRC and also in the Republic of Congo (ROC) because of these countries rights to "legitimate defence against aggressor forces, national judicial fundamentals and respect for international law".