Three months after the resumption of fighting between Lendu and Hema militias in Ituri, a district in the northeast of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), a vivid picture of human-rights violations is emerging. UN observers and NGOs believe the militias' objective is to change the ethnic composition of Djugu, a territory to the north of Ituri's main town, Bunia.

The International Criminal Court, established in 2002 as the world's first permanent war crimes court, held its first judicial proceedings on Tuesday, with a pre-trial hearing on abuses committed in Congo. The Hague-based court - backed by almost 100 countries but fiercely opposed by the Unites States - was set up as the first permanent global criminal court to try individuals for genocide, war crimes and massive human rights abuses.

A woman is gang-raped by six soldiers, in front of her husband and children, while their companion assaults her 3-year-old daughter. A 13-year-old girl dies, vomiting blood, two days after being brutally raped by a group of militants. A United Nation's peacekeeper trades a desperate woman two eggs for sex. The stories are horrifying and endless and come from a new report by Human Rights Watch, evidence of the ongoing tragedy in a forgotten corner of Africa.

Eastern Congo is suffering the world's worst current humanitarian crisis, with a death toll outstripping that in Sudan's strife-torn Darfur region, according to a top UN official. United Nations emergency relief coordinator Jan Egeland said on Wednesday that over the last six years the toll in the DRC amounted to "one tsunami every six months" - a reference to the December disaster which left about 300,000 people dead or missing in Asia. "In terms of the human lives lost ... this is the greatest humanitarian crisis in the world today and it is beyond belief that the world is not paying more attention," he told a news conference. Egeland was speaking during a visit to Geneva for talks with UN and other relief workers on improving the global humanitarian aid system.

This weekend sees a new military operation underway in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Reports from the central African country say about 800 United Nations troops have been deployed in the north-eastern Ituri region to disarm local militias held responsible for the death of nine peacekeepers last month. Recent events have underscored the difficulty of bringing lasting peace to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), where conflict in eastern regions has continued despite a 2002 accord aimed at ending five years of civil war.

In eastern Congo's conflict, government troops and rebel fighters have raped tens of thousands of women and girls, but fewer than a dozen perpetrators have been prosecuted by a judicial system in dire need of reform, Human Rights Watch said in a report released on the eve of International Women's Day. The 52-page report, "Seeking Justice: Prosecution of Sexual Violence in the Congo War," documents how the government of the Democratic Republic of Congo has taken insufficient steps to prosecute those responsible for wartime rape. Human Rights Watch called on the Congolese government and international donors, including the European Union, to take urgent steps to reform Congo's justice system.

At least 88,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the war-torn district of Ituri, northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), are again receiving relief aid, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), reported. Humanitarian actors have resumed aid to Kakwa, Tché and Gina IDP sites after they suspended services following the killing of nine Bangladeshi UN peacekeepers by militiamen on 26 February in Kafe village.

The UN Security Council has backed the strong action taken by UN peacekeepers against militias in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The statement follows the killing of more than 50 militiamen by UN forces in the north-eastern region of Ituri. One of the militias in the region has been blamed for an ambush last week in which nine UN troops were killed.

The UK Guardian reports that the British government has failed to investigate properly UN Security Council allegations that British companies helped to perpetuate the war in the Democratic Republic of Congo, according to a report by an all-party parliamentary group. In 2002 a UN panel of experts said that high-level political, military and business networks were pillaging gold, diamonds, timber, and coltan, a metal found in mobile phones and computers, to enrich individuals and fund various warring factions. Visit http://www.appggreatlakes.org/cgi-bin/site/index.cgi to download the full report, or read The Guardian article by clicking on the link above.

One of Africa's biggest electricity companies has unveiled plans to build the world's biggest hydro-electricity plant on a stretch of the Congo River, harnessing enough power for the whole continent. The proposed plant at the Inga Rapids, near the river's mouth in the western Democratic Republic of Congo, would cost $50bn (£26bn) and could generate some 40,000MW, twice the power of China's Three Gorges dam. But critics say even run-of-river plants can damage the environment, by blocking the migratory path of fish and stalling the flow of silt downstream.

Some 43 people have died and 13 others infected following an outbreak of pneumonic plague in the mining area of Zobia, in the region of Bas-Uele in Oriental Province, eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), an official in the Ministry of Health told IRIN on Monday. The ministry's director of epidemiology, Dr Benoit Kebele Ilunga, said the epidemic showed up three weeks ago in one of the mines in the diamond rich area.

The International Centre for Transitional Justice (ICTJ) has urged the Congolese government to vet and prosecute former militia leaders instead of appointing them to high-ranking positions in the newly integrated national army. "If the Democratic Republic of the Congo [DRC] is to achieve a lasting and sustainable peace, it must not appoint individuals to the army when there is evidence that they may be responsible for serious abuses," Juan Méndez, the president of the ICTJ and UN Special Adviser to the Secretary-General on the Prevention of Genocide, said.

Tens of thousands of people have been displaced by recent violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo's north-east region of Ituri. People are fleeing the resumption of activities of ethnic-based militia groups in the area. Neither the Congolese government nor the UN seem able to bring an end to this conflict, which has already claimed an estimated 50,000 lives.

UN peacekeepers in the Democratic Republic of Congo have been banned from having sex with locals after claims of widespread abuse of women and girls. The new rules were disclosed in a letter from UN Secretary General Kofi Annan to the Security Council. Mr Annan also called for 100 extra military police and French-speaking investigators to "root out" the abuse.

Action Against HIV/AIDS and Tuberculosis in the Congo (ACIST-Congo) is a non-profit organisation fighting against the spread of AIDS and tuberculosis. The organisation was created in Kinshasa on 24 March 2003 by a doctor and three AIDS workers, of which one is a woman.

After one year of provisional activity, ACIST-Congo has officially established its social and administrative location on 44 Kenge Street, 2nd Quarter, in the area of Ndjili (one of the most popular areas of Kinshasa), private property of 14 ACIST. Coordinated by an organisational committee, wherein the director is a woman, ACIST-Congo is involved in:

- the fight against HIV/AIDS
- helping people living with HIV and AIDS (PLWHA)
- sensitisation efforts of tuberculosis
- frameworking teenagers and young people
- blood donations
- the fight against nicotine addictions
- family planning
- a library
- a centre of vocational training for people living with HIV and AIDS

ACIST-Congo works together with churches, schools and associations in order to achieve its goals. For information on visiting the centre, our partners, collaboration or assistance, please contact: (00243) (0) 815131247, 815131246, 815034196, 813859158.

FRENCH VERSION:

L'Action Contre les IST/SIDA et la tuberculose qu Congo est créee à Kinshasa le 24 mars 2003 comme une association sans but lucratif de lutte contre le sida et la tuberculose par un médecin et trois communicateur en matière de sida, dont une femme.

Après une année d'activité provisoire, L'ACIST-CONGO a établi officiellement son siège social et administratif sur l'avenue Kenge au numéro 44 du quartier 2 dans la commune de Ndjili ( l'une des communes la plus populaire de kinshasa), propriété privée de l4ACIST. Coordonée par un un comité de coordination dirigé par une femme, l'ACIST-CONGO intervient dans:
- la lutte contre les IST/SIDA
- l'accompagnement des Personnes vivant avec le VIH (PVV/PA)
- la sensibilisation sur la tuberculose
- l'encadrement de adolescents et jeunes
- le don bénévole du sang
- la lutte contre le tabagisme
- la planification familiale
- une bibliothéque
- une centre de formation professionnelle pour PVV/PA.

L'ACIST-CONGO travaille en collaboration avec les églises, les écoles et les associations pour atteindre ses objectifs. Pour les visites, contactes, partenariat, collaboration ou assistance, contactez: (00243) (0)815131247, 815131246, 815031496, 816859158.

Numbers coming out of Congo these days are staggering, reports this article from Germany's Der Spiegel newspaper. There are currently 2.5 million refugees in the entire country, including 500,000 in the North Kivu province alone. According to conservative estimates, more than three million people have died in the region in the past few years. The US-based International Rescue Committee (IRC) recently reported that thousands of people die in the country each day from malnutrition or any one of a myriad of diseases.

A new relief operation has begun in the district of Ituri, northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), to help tens of thousands of people displaced by fighting in January. UNICEF said it had reached at least 42,000 displaced people at four sites for internally displaced persons (IDPs), three of which are protected by troops of the UN Mission in the DRC, known as MONUC. The agency said it had not yet been able to reach many other displaced people.

Two years after its war was declared officially over, a wave of sexual violence continues to sweep through the Democratic Republic of Congo. Although the violence is not on the same scale as it once was, it remains a messy, unfinished conflict which has a huge impact on civilians - particularly girls and women. At least 40,000 have been raped over the past six years, according to a recent report by Amnesty International.

Journalist Jose Wakadila, of the Kinshasa-based daily "La Référence Plus", was arrested by judicial police on 31 January 2005 as he was boarding a Kinshasa-bound bus and taken to the Matadi Central Prison in Bas-Congo province, western Democratic Republic of Congo. According to the prison's director, there has been a warrant for the journalist's arrest since he was convicted in absentia by a Kinshasa court, on 13 September 2004, for making "damaging allegations" and sentenced to an 11-month prison term with no parole.

In early 2004, media reports emerged alleging that UN peacekeepers in the UN Organization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUC) were involved in the sexual exploitation and abuse of Congolese girls in Bunia, in the Ituri District in the north-east of the DRC. After carrying out a number of internal investigations, MONUC and the UN's Department of Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO) requested the UN's Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) to investigate the allegations. The OIOS report, which has just been released, is based on a three-month investigation from June to September 2004. One of its recommendations suggests that the Department of Peacekeeping Operations consider a wider application of prevention and detection policies to protect against sexual abuse and exploitation by peacekeepers. This may include the designation of local officials or nongovernmental organizations to receive reports of sexual exploitation and abuse; the central reporting of all cases to mission senior management on an expedited basis; the development of mission-based rapid-response teams; the development of educational programmes for the troops on their responsibilities and on sanctions for sexual exploitation and abuse; the public naming and shaming of those found to have engaged in sexual exploitation and abuse; and the permanent exclusion from peacekeeping missions of those troops who engage in sexual exploitation and abuse and of their contingents' commanders.