The four and a half year war in the Democratic Republic of Congo has taken more lives than any other since World War II and is the deadliest documented conflict in African history, says the International Rescue Committee. A mortality study released this week by the IRC estimates that since August 1998, when the war erupted, through November 2002 when the survey was completed, at least 3.3 million people died in excess of what would normally be expected during this time.

Either side of an 1800 mile front-line, a country the size of western Europe with a population no larger than England’s has been carved up by warring factions and foreign armies from nine different countries, leaving millions dead or homeless. What little infrastructure dictator Mobutu Sese Seko did not wreck during his three decades of misrule has mostly been destroyed by fighting, or has finally succumbed to neglect. The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is possibly the most mineral rich place on earth – though this has proved a curse to the people of the Congo. The Congo holds millions of tons of diamonds, copper, cobalt, zinc, manganese, uranium (the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were built using Congolese uranium), and coltan. Coltan, a substance made up of columbium and tantalum, is a particularly valuable resource – used to make mobile phones, night vision goggles, fiber optics, and micro-capacitors. The war on Iraq, says this article in the latest Corporate Watch newsletter, is not the only war in the world and it is not the only war being fought for our material benefit. Western consumers' seemingly insatiable demand for mobile phones, laptops, games consoles and other luxury electronic goods has been fuelling violent conflict and killing millions in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Related Links:
*A Past that Haunts the Future
http://web.amnesty.org/web/wire.nsf/April2003/Congo
* Kgame Denies DRC Troop Prescence
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=33349

Congolese representatives have hailed the historic signing of a peace agreement and said it paved the way for the reconstruction of the country. But delegates also noted that tough times lie ahead as they seek to implement the peace deal. All the sides in the Democratic Republic of the Congo signed a peace deal that will pave the way for elections in two years' time. Forty-four groups - including armed factions, exiled political parties and civil society groups - signed the Final Act at Sun City. The signing ceremony signalled the end of the South African-sponsored Inter-Congolese Dialogue (ICD) which began 14 months ago in the same venue.

The UN Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), known as MONUC, denounced on Tuesday the capture of two towns in eastern DRC by a Rwandan-backed rebel group, the Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie-Goma (RCD-Goma). "The attacks caused large displacement of people and a report, yet to be confirmed, suggests that RCD[-Goma] has the intention of carrying on with territorial conquests in Kasuo, Bingi and Lubero, where MONUC opened a reception centre for the purpose of its disarmament, demobilization and repatriation (DDR) operations," MONUC said.
Related Link:
* New stand-off threatens peace deal
http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?a=37&o=17869

The NGO Refugees International (RI) has called for leaders of groups that employ child soldiers to be declared war criminals and prosecuted as such by the International Criminal Court. In a report published on 1 April highlighting the plight of child soldiers in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), RI said that despite UN Security Council resolutions and international protocols prohibiting the recruitment and use of child soldiers, there had been too little progress in eliminating this form of child abuse in the DRC.

The Ugandan authorities should bring suspected perpetrators of the serious human rights abuses committed in Ituri to justice before Uganda's courts, Amnesty International says in a new report on the deteriorating situation in Ituri province in north-eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). "There must be no hiding place for those who are alleged to have committed serious violations of international human rights and humanitarian law in Ituri or elsewhere in DRC", Amnesty International said. "Suspected perpetrators, of whatever nationality, found on Ugandan territory or in areas of the DRC under Ugandan control should be investigated and brought to justice."

All parties involved in the renewed combat in northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo must prevent killings and other abuses of civilians by their troops, Human Rights Watch says. “Many military operations in this area have turned into slaughter of civilians or other kinds of abuses, like rape, torture and pillage,” says Alison Des Forges, senior adviser to the Africa Division of Human Rights Watch.

Slightly over 30,000 people have been displaced since late 2002 by attacks and counterattacks by Mayi-Mayi militias and the Rwandan-backed Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie-Goma (RCD-Goma) rebel movement along the western bank of the River Lomami, between Katako Kombe and Lubefu, in Kasai Oriental Province, central Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), according to Catholic Relief Services (CRS), the official relief and development agency of the US Catholic community.

The signing of a ceasefire for the Ituri District of northeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) will take place on 10 March, Thomas Lubanga, leader of the Bunia-based Union des patriotes congolais (UPC) rebel movement, told IRIN last Friday. He was accused by the UN Mission in the DRC, known as MONUC, of blocking the signing of the ceasefire that was to have taken place on 19 February. Lubanga, in turn, accused MONUC of favouring the DRC and Ugandan governments, which, he alleged, supported the creation of a rival militia to the UPC, namely the Front pour l'integration et la pacification de l'Ituri.

Responsibilities include planning and implementing all health project activities in cooperation with the district health office in different health zones for an ECHO project supervision of the implementation (medical monitoring and evaluation) of project activities (including medical administration, procurement of drugs and management of stocks, budget control) in cooperation with project coordinator and administrator respectively.

The UN Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), known as MONUC, on Wednesday decried the prevailing military tension in the Ituri District in northeastern Orientale Province despite continued widespread efforts to restore peace to the region, most notably through the establishment of the Ituri Pacification Commission (IPC).

As the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) continues to work towards genuine peace and national reconciliation, a joint United Nations team is coordinating a series of meetings underway in Pretoria, where Congolese parties are pressing ahead with efforts to bolster a recent peace accord. Under the auspices of the joint UN/South Africa mediation team, two technical committees met for the first time in Pretoria as part of the follow-up to the 17 December signing of a comprehensive power-sharing agreement.

The UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) in the Democratic Republic of the Congo will on Saturday launch a campaign to provide supplemental Vitamin A to some 12 million children aged six to 59 months nationwide.

A UN inter-agency mission has said there is an "urgent need" to extend humanitarian support to an estimated 2.7 million internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported last Friday.

The international medical aid NGO Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) has dispatched medical teams and medicines to fight several epidemics in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), including a cholera outbreak that first erupted about 18 months ago, MSF reported last Friday.

A journalist from La Tempête des Tropiques newspaper and his wife have been arrested in Kinshasa. National Intelligence Agency (Agence nationale des renseignements) agents arrested Bamporiki Chamira, a journalist with a Kinshasa-based daily newspaper, and his wife at their Kinshasa home. They are being held at the Agence nationale des renseignements prison on Avenue ex-3Z in Kinshasa or Gombe.

The outbreak of cholera in Mbuji-Mayi in the province of Kasai-Oriental in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) "remains alarming", and the disease continues to spread, according to the International Federation of the Red Cross. An update issued on Wednesday said 202 deaths had been reported since the disease broke out in September 2002.

The top United Nations envoy for the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has said he would seek Security Council action if a rebel group did not stop blocking peace efforts in the Ituri region, where half a million people have been displaced, women raped and many children enlisted as soldiers.
Related Link:
* Ituri peace accord postponed
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=32359

Concerned for their security, the office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) on Wednesday moved 406 Congolese refugees in Burundi farther away from the border with the "volatile" Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). It reported on Thursday that the refugees had left Rugombo, a refugee reception centre located three kilometres from the border, for Cishemeye I transit centre.

Deeply concerned by the continuous heavy fighting in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), despite the signing of ceasefire agreements, two top United Nations officials have briefed the Security Council on the military situation and the deteriorating human rights conditions in that country. Information gathered "reveals that prosecution on ethnic and tribal grounds, extortion of property, rape and other forms of sexual violence against women, extra-judicial executions, and the forced recruitment of children are being committed."