One year after receiving the Rafto Prize, pastor Bulambo Lembelembe Josué, right, is still fighting to establish a dialogue between the rebel soldiers, government and international forces, and civilians in the Congolese Kivu region.

Progress in bringing stability to the war-wracked east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is mixed, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon says in a new report, noting the heavy humanitarian toll wrought by a military operation to flush out a notorious ethnic Hutu militia.

JED is calling on the Democratic Republic of Congo's (DRC) National Intelligence Agency (ANR) to put an end to the abuse of authority by officials at its Kasindi and Béni offices after radio reporter Maurice Lutendero was detained in Kasindi on 30 November 2009.

As global awareness grows around the Congo and the silence is finally being broken on the current and historic exploitation of Black people in the heart of Africa, a myriad of Western based “prescriptions” are being proffered. Most of these prescriptions are devoid of social, political, economic and historical context and are marked by remarkable omissions.

In the year since the start of the first trial at the international war crimes court involving an alleged Congolese warlord, rape on a mass scale has continued unabated in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Over 5 million people, mostly civilians, have died in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) since its conflict began in 1996. In this week’s Pambazuka News Phumlani Majavu looks at why peace is so elusive, with reference to a recent report from human rights group Global Witness on the role the illegal trade in minerals plays in fuelling violence in the DRC.

The trial against two former Congolese rebel leaders for crimes allegedly committed by their militias in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) in 2003 is set to begin in The Hague at the International Criminal Court.

Julie* had just blown out the kerosene lamp and was lying in bed next to her husband when suddenly the stillness of the night was pierced by enraged shouts and the sound of a door being kicked open. Eight armed men burst into her house in a small village in Congo’s North Kivu province, wielding machetes and automatic rifles.

Inter-ethnic fighting in the northwestern region of the Democratic Republic of Congo has resulted in the deaths of 100 people and the displacement of 25,000 others, the United Nations has said.

UNICEF has said that more than 43,000 children work in mines in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The UN agency made this known in a statement it issued ahead of the 20th anniversary of the Convention on the Children's Rights.

The number of civilians fleeing tribal violence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) into neighbouring Republic of Congo since last week has topped 21,800, the United Nations refugee agency has reported.

The top priority for the United Nations peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is the protection of civilians from abuse, be it from the Government forces that it is mandated to support or armed rebel groups, a senior official has said.

A Dan rarther report entitled "All Mine" focuses on an American company, Arizona's Freeport McMoran, which, when it bought a massive copper mine from the government of Congo, also took control of part of the impoverished country's economic future. Critics of the purchase said that the contract for the billion-dollar mine left the war-torn African nation with little in return, and that the U.S. government played a part in what many are describing as a modern day land grab. The episode originally aired on September 23, 2008

At least 16,000 civilians have fled deadly clashes in western Democratic Republic of Congo and are now languishing, many without food or shelter, in neighbouring Republic of Congo, according to the UN and local officials.

The United Nations refugee agency has rushed relief items to help tens of thousands of Angolans expelled from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) last month. A Boeing 747 jet from Johannesburg, South Africa, touched down in Angola’s capital, Luanda, over the weekend carrying thousands of tents, sleeping mats and blankets, as well as a prefabricated warehouse.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) has announced that the trial of Jean-Pierre Bemba Gombo, a former senior official of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) who has been charged with war crimes, will begin in April 2010. Mr. Bemba, the former Congolese Vice President, faces charges for alleged crimes committed in the Central African Republic (CAR) between October 2002 and March 2003, including rape, murder and pillaging.

Congolese armed forces in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo have brutally killed hundreds of civilians and committed widespread rape in the past three months in a military operation backed by the United Nations, Human Rights Watch has said.

Armed villagers have killed at least 47 policemen who were trying to intervene in ethnic clashes in the northern Democratic Republic of Congo, reports say. A number of civilians were also killed in the violence which erupted in the village of Dongo in Equateur province early on Thursday, the UN-sponsored Radio Okapi said, citing local officials.

Concerns abound about a nine billion dollar Chinese investment in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, especially around environmental consequences and transparency. And, on the Chinese side, investors complain not only about the lack of security in the DRC but about their own government not providing enough support.

Comparing the hundreds of thousands of forcibly displaced civilians in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) to the victims of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, UN High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres on Friday urged the international community not to forget the Congolese in their hour of need.