Armed groups are still recruiting child soldiers to fight in the ongoing conflict in the province of North Kivu, eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Those child soldiers who attempt to escape have been killed or tortured, sometimes in front of other children, to discourage further escapes. Children who are taken captive by the DRC army on suspicion of being armed group fighters, have faced ill-treatment and torture in military detention

Fighting between Congolese armed forces and dissident troops and militias, as well as widespread human rights violations committed by all groups, has caused the displacement of at least 150,000 people in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) from January to July 2008, mostly in North Kivu province. As a result, at least 1.25 million people were displaced in DRC as of the end of June, two-thirds of them in North Kivu Province.

All politics is local, to paraphrase the venerable Bostonian and Democratic, Tip O'Neill. To human rights workers, journalists, writers, and humanitarians who have intimate knowledge of the Great Lakes Region of Equatorial Africa, this short email conjures a place, people, and tragedy that has been met with a wall of silence on the campaign trail. Neither John McCain nor Barack Obama has addressed this great humanitarian breakdown, except in the context of political squabbling.

The Congolese Prime Minister, Antoine Gizenga has resigned his position on Thursday. His letter of resignation has been submitted to President Joseph Kabila and awaiting response. He made his disclosure on National Broadcasting Television of Congo.

Renewed combat in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo has caused a drastic deterioration in the humanitarian situation and immense suffering for civilians, the Congo Advocacy Coalition, a group of 83 aid agencies and human rights groups, has said. The coalition called for urgent action to improve protection of civilians and an immediate increase in assistance to vulnerable populations.

Some 75,000 people have fled attacks by Ugandan rebels in northern Democratic Republic of Congo, the Catholic aid agency Caritas has said. Fighters from the Lord's Resistance Army are reported to have killed villagers and abducted children during recent attacks. The rebels have moved from their original bases in Uganda to north-eastern DR Congo and South Sudan.

Intense fighting has broken out between the army and rebels loyal to the former general Laurent Nkunda in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), with the army using rocket launchers and other heavy artillery, the United Nations peacekeeping mission hasreported. To ensure that civilians were not harmed, the peacekeepers interceded with Congolese troops who agreed to cease fire by the end of the day. The fighting took place in Kirotshe, a town near Goma, which has seen several fierce battles in recent days.

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) is scaling up existing emergency programmes in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), where increased fighting has forced over 100,000 people to flee their homes, social services to close, and humanitarian organizations to suspend aid.

The Security Council has voiced serious concern at the recent fighting between Government forces and rebel groups in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), some of the worst violence since the signing of a January peace deal. The Council stressed that the clashes that broke out in North Kivu on 28 August between the country’s armed forces (FARDC) and the National Congress for People’s Defense, known by its French acronym CNDP, are a violation of the Actes d’Engagement signed by both parties earlier this year.

The Democratic Republic of Congo army is collaborating with rebels to mine gold and tin, instead of fighting them, says lobby group Global Witness. Its researchers found that the two groups operated their own mines and even traded with each other.

The government of Democratic Republic of Congo is planning to privatise some of its most valuable mining assets, as well as take a larger share of any future discoveries made in the mineral-rich country.Victor Kasongo, Congo’s deputy minister of mines, said on Friday that “a major future initiative” for the government was the transformation of state-owned mining companies into commercial entities.

Fighting resumed on Friday between government troops and rebels in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in a new breach of a truce agreement, sources on both sides said. The governor of Nord-Kivu province, Julien Pakulu, said forces of renegade general Laurent Nkunda had attacked positions of the government's Seventh Brigade at Katsiru, about 100km north-west of the provincial capital, Goma.

Growing numbers of Congolese refugees like Kashindi Iddi are opting to head home from Tanzania as the situation eases in their home province of South Kivu across Lake Tanganyika. "In 1998, I fled my home town of Matongo because of the war in South Kivu. Today, I'm returning with my wife and three children," Iddi, holding his two-year-old son by the hand, said as he waited to board a UNHCR-charted ferry at the port of Kigoma.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) has dismissed an appeal by prosecutors against its earlier decision to suspend the trial of the Congolese rebel leader Thomas Lubanga Dyilo, accused of recruiting child soldiers to serve in his militia. The court announced the decision in a statement, noting that judges with the ICC’s trial chamber had made the ruling.

Congo's eastern borderlands risk plunging back into all-out war between the army and Tutsi rebels after the heaviest clashes in months, the U.N. peacekeeping mission chief said. The enemies fought heavy battles last week in North Kivu province, where violence fuelled by simmering ethnic tensions has raged despite the official end of Congo's broader 1998-2003 war, a regional free-for-all over the country's mineral wealth.

Since 1982, IDRC has assisted Canadian graduate students to undertake their thesis research in the field of international development. IDRC Doctoral Research Awards are intended to promote the growth of Canadian capacity in research on sustainable and equitable development from an international perspective. Normally, such research is conducted in Latin America, Africa, the Middle East or Asia.

In a bid to cope with tragic situation in north and south Kivu, Democratic Republic of Congo, International Confederation of Red Cross (ICRC) has nearly doubled aid to people affected by internal armed conflict in the region. Head of ICRC's economic security unit in DRC, Ian Byram, says two types of economic assistance programmes are being implemented to address people's needs.

The UN has found that its peacekeeping troops from India may have engaged in abuse and exploitation while serving in the Democratic Republic of Congo. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said he was deeply troubled by the findings. The Indian authorities say they are investigating the allegations and the vice chief of the Indian army had visited Congo in May to look into them. India has said it will take strict action against the perpetrators if the allegations are proved.

The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) should cancel more than three quarters of its logging deals for not meeting necessary standards, a government-sponsored working group looking into the forestry sector said on Wednesday. The country, home to the world's second largest tropical forest, launched a World Bank-backed review of all timber contracts last week in an effort to recoup millions of dollars in lost taxes and clean up a business rife with corruption.

While each phase of disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration (DDR) contains challenges, the most delicate and urgent component is disarmament. Written by Peter Swarbrick, this operational manual aims to educate donors, managers and practitioners about some of the most important obstacles to successful DDR operations. Using examples from the DDR programme in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the manual identifies common problems and practical solutions that can be applied to a variety of apparently dissimilar disarmament processes.