At least 43,000 refugees returned to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) between January and October, with another 310,000 still in neighbouring countries, according to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). Most of the returnees went to the provinces of South Kivu in the east, Equateur in the northeast and Katanga in the south, UNHCR stated in a report detailing figures of returns to and from the DRC.

The World Bank encouraged foreign companies to destructively log the world's second largest forest, endangering the lives of thousands of Congolese Pygmies, according to a report on an internal investigation by senior bank staff and outside experts. The report by the independent inspection panel also accuses the bank of misleading the Democratic Republic of Congo's (DRC) government about the value of its forests and of breaking its own rules.

Military dissidents loyal to renegade army general Laurent Nkunda have resumed fighting in the eastern province of North Kivu, in the Democratic Republic of Congo, two weeks after a ceasefire was negotiated by the UN Mission in the Congo (MONUC). 'The insurgents launched attacks against three of our positions in the morning, in Ngungu where the clashes had ceased, in Karuba and in Kichanga' [in Masisi territory, northeast of Goma, the provincial capital], Colonel Delphin Kahindi, the deputy commander of the Congolese army in the province, said on 24 September 2007.

Thousands of Congolese civilians who were displaced in August by fighting in Sake town, North Kivu Province, are still living in camps out of fear that fighting could resume, a UN official said.

Health authorities in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) have identified a fever outbreak that has claimed at least 167 lives in the southern province of Kasai Occidental as Ebola. "The results from the referral laboratory in Franceville in Gabon and the CDC [Centers for Disease Control] in Atlanta in the United States confirmed the diagnosis of the haemorrhagic viral Ebola fever," health minister Victor Makwenge Kaput said on national television on 10 September.

Reporters Without Borders has said it was “worried and exasperated” about the continuing threats against the members of Journalist in Danger (JED), its partner organisation in Democratic Republic of Congo, who have to endure a constant climate of fear and danger.

Central and local government officials of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) have called directly on Congolese refugees in Zambia to return and help rebuild their homeland. David Byaza Sanda, secretary general in the DRC ministry of home affairs, made the appeal during a visit to the Meheba settlement in north-west Zambia's Solwezi district on Tuesday by a tripartite commission on the voluntary repatriation of Congolese refugees living in this country.

In the wake of recent intense fighting in North-Kivu province between government forces and fighters loyal to renegade general Laurent Nkunda, Amnesty International has accused the DRC government and international community of having failed the people of eastern DRC.

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has called on the authorities of the Democratic Republic of Congo to release Noëlla Mwambikwa, a journalist with Congolese National Radio and Television station (RTNC), who has been detained since her arrest by army intelligence on Tuesday for alleged links with a rebel leader.

In August, Uganda's Security Minister, Amama Mbabazi, threatened to re-enter the neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) following two cross-border incursions by Congolese gunmen thought to have been linked to the army. Kinshasa stands accused of killing a British worker from the oil-exploring Heritage Corporation after a 15-minute exchange of fire with the Uganda People's Defence Force and private guards.

People are again fleeing from their homes in North Kivu as tension and terror return to the border province in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Petronilla Nsiya watched in horror early last week when armed men entered her village, Sake, frogmarched her neighbour from his hut, tied him to a tree and then butchered him. The man's wife was shot in the stomach.

A dissident Congolese general called for African mediation to broker a ceasefire in eastern Congo as fighting between his forces and government troops neared the provincial capital on Thursday. New clashes broke out before dawn around Karuba, a village about 30 km (19 miles) west of Goma, the capital of troubled North Kivu province, after President Joseph Kabila's government rejected talk of negotiations.

Thousands of civilians fled heavy fighting in Democratic Republic of Congo's troubled North Kivu province after clashes erupted before dawn on Thursday between government forces and renegade soldiers. Some 1,000 fighters loyal to rebel Tutsi General Laurent Nkunda attacked a Congolese army brigade headquarters in Katale, around 60 km (38 miles) northwest of the provincial capital Goma, at around 4 a.m. (0200 GMT), witnesses said.

Deploring clashes among opposing factions of the armed forces in the volatile east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the United Nations peacekeeping mission in the vast country has said that it is fully committed to helping find a peaceful solution to protect civilians from further violence.

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has condemned the dismissal of eight journalists at Congolese newspaper L’Avenir after the management said they had to cut jobs due to economic concerns and then subsequently advertised for new workers to replace them.

The Researcher will be based in Goma, eastern DRC, after an initial period of orientation (in HRW's New York, Washington, D.C., Brussels or London offices). Responsibilities will include, but are not limited to, monitoring violations of human rights and international humanitarian law; curbing abuses through monitoring, investigating and documenting human rights violations in DRC (with a focus on the eastern provinces); applying sound judgment to investigation, reporting and advocacy work; writing and publicizing concise and accurate reports.

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has called on the DRC authorities for the release of Michel Shango and Vincent Hata, two journalists and trade unionists of the state-owned Congolese National Radio and Television station (RTNC), detained since July 27 in connection with their trade-union activities. A third journalist Risasi Tambwe, arrested with them, was released last Tuesday.

Janet Furaha fled the violence in her home area of Kaniola in the Democratic Republic of Congo's (DRC) South Kivu province in May to live with relatives in Walungu, but she has often returned to tend her farm. "I have not been there in the past few weeks because attackers have intensified their activities, but if I hear the situation is calmer, I will go and see if I can get any food," she said.

The United Nations peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has denounced the recent series of attacks on journalists in the troubled country, especially those working for a UN-backed radio station with the largest Francophone audience in sub-Saharan Africa.

A train crash in a remote part of Democratic Republic of Congo killed at least 100 people and injured more than 200, the central African country's minister of information said on Thursday. "We are still discovering the dead. So right now we are putting the death toll at about 100," Toussaint Tshilombo told Reuters, adding that the cause of the crash was still unknown.