The United Nations refugee agency has this week begun an operation to return hundreds of internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) to their homes in the troubled north-eastern province of Ituri by the end of the year.

Environmental experts hurried to the south-eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) on Thursday to test water from a river where authorities suspect 18 tonnes of radioactive minerals were dumped last week. Officials feared contamination of the river, an important source of drinking water for thousands of people in Katanga province, the vast Central African nation's mining heartland.

The United Nations peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has transferred 16 former commanders of Ituri armed groups to Kinshasa, calling it a major step in consolidating peace in the northeastern part of the country. The transfer, which took place on Saturday by a special UN flight, was the result of 18 months of intense negotiations with the de facto leaders of the three remaining Ituri Armed Groups, according to the mission, known as MONUC.

Aiming to facilitate efforts to achieve a lasting solution to the crisis in the strife-torn North Kivu province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), a senior United Nations official has held meeting with local authorities there. Assistant Secretary-General for Political Affairs Haile Menkerios, who was sent by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on the special mission last week, began his meetings in Kinshasa on Saturday, according to the UN Mission in the DRC (MONUC).

A coalition of non-governmental organisations from Europe, North America, and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has launched an international appeal demanding the publication of the final report of the ministerial commission on the review of mining contracts without delay.

MONUC, the UN mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), has called on the army to demobilise all child soldiers in its ranks and hand over any minors held by military tribunals to civilian jurisdiction. "We believe there are almost 200 minors still present in various FARDC [regular army] brigades currently deployed in North Kivu," MONUC spokesman Kemal Saiki told reporters on 31 October.

Reporters Without Borders has condemned information, press and communication minister Toussaint Tshilombo Send’s announcement of a ban on around 40 TV and radio stations five days ago. It has had the effect of silencing four community radio stations based in Kinshasa, while around 200 other community radio stations throughout the country are also threatened.

A cholera outbreak in Congo's eastern city of Goma is raising fears of an epidemic among tens of thousands of refugees in camps, aid workers said on Thursday. Fighting between government soldiers, Tutsi insurgents, Rwandan Hutu rebels and local Mai Mai militia has forced more than 370,000 to flee villages in North Kivu province this year.

North Kivu is again a crucible of conflict in Congo. Since fighting resumed between the insurgents of Laurent Nkunda and the national army in December 2006, over 370,000 civilians have been displaced in the province. Due to the failure of the latest attempt to integrate Nkunda’s troops into the army, the crisis has become much worse since May 2007. UN attempts to impose a ceasefire and appoint a special envoy to mediate have failed.

The hidden crimes of systematic detention, torture and murder committed against the opponents of the government of Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) by security forces has been exposed. Amnesty International (AI) that exposed the crimes in a newly published report asked the government of President Joseph Kabila to urgently and independently investigate the alleged cases.

Reporters Without Borders has condemned information, press and communication minister Toussaint Tshilombo Send’s announcement of a ban on around 40 TV and radio stations five days ago. It has had the effect of silencing four community radio stations based in Kinshasa, while around 200 other community radio stations throughout the country are also threatened.

Despite an overall decrease in the intensity and recurrence of conflicts in the district of Ituri in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), civilian populations there are still subjected to high levels of violence. Based upon four years of medical work in the region, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has issued a report titled "Ituri: Civilians Still the First Victims", emphasizing the persistence of sexual violence as well as the direct humanitarian consequences of military operations in 2007 during a "pacification process" in the region.

China has signed its largest single deal in Africa with the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC): a $5 billion loan to develop infrastructures, mining, bioenergy, forestry and agriculture. Infrastructure Minister Pierre Lumbi said the money will be spent on building roads, railroads, hospitals, health centres, housing and universities.

A delegation of rain forest peoples from Democratic Republic of Congo will fly to Washington this week to complain to the World Bank about its support for wholesale logging to help rebuild the war-ravaged economy. The visit follows a leak of a report last week by the bank's inspection panel that criticised it for backing a number of logging projects without adequate consideration of their sociological or environmental impact.

The International Criminal Court has announced that suspected war criminal Germain Katanga, former senior commander of the militia group Force de Résistance Patriotique en Ituri (FRPI) in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), was surrendered to its detention centre at The Hague. The latest suspect joined Congolese suspect Thomas Lubanga Dyilo, who will be tried on crimes relating to the recruitment of children as soldiers in what is widely viewed as a milestone in international attempts to fight immunity on the issue.

The Researcher will be based in Goma, eastern DRC, and 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, briefing papers, letters, press releases, op-eds and submissions to international bodies as needed, with a quick turnaround time; developing and implementing local, regional and international strategies to bring violations to the attention of the government and the international community and change abusive laws, policies and practices. Apply immediately.

Dissident Congolese general Laurent Nkunda has called for a fresh ceasefire, claiming that the army's artillery fire in North Kivu province was hitting civilians. Government forces have retaken several villages from troops loyal to Nkunda, according to the UN Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), MONUC.

In Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, first published in 1899 and years later subject to a polemical but much-needed critique by one of Africa’s most prolific writers, King Leopold’s colonial project in the Congo is described as “the vilest scramble for loot that ever disfigured the history of human conscience.” More than a century later, writes Zahra Moloo, after a protracted war in which an estimated 4.2 million citizens perished and the nation’s stability was invested in the UN’s largest peacekeeping force to date, Conrad’s oft-repeated phrase is, tragically, just as pertinent.

The United Nations refugee agency is working to register displaced people fleeing confrontations between the armed forces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and troops of ex-General Laurent Nkunda in the volatile North Kivu province, where human rights abuses such as rape are reportedly on the rise. The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reported today that it has started registration of all internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the five camp sites in the Mugunga area some 15 kilometres west of Goma. Over 27,500 internally displaced have been identified.

The International Monetary Fund has warned Congo to beware of the macroeconomic effects of a planned $5 billion loan from China to modernise the vast African country's decrepit infrastructure and mining industry. President Joseph Kabila's government announced plans last month for the huge loan from China, which would be paid back partly in mining concessions and tolls from road and railways.