The government of the Democratic Republic of Congo must act promptly on the recommendations of a Congolese parliamentary investigation that uncovered illegal natural resource exploitation and profiteering from armed conflict, said a leading group of international human rights, environmental and aid organizations this week. In June 2005 the Lutundula Commission, a special National Assembly commission led by parliamentarian Christophe Lutundula, submitted a report on its investigations into mining and other business contracts that rebels and government authorities signed between 1996 and 2003, when Congo was wracked by war. The report found that dozens of contracts are either illegal or of limited value for the development of the country and it recommends their termination or renegotiation.

Democratic Republic of Congo on Saturday (February 18) adopted a new constitution aimed at bringing an end to decades of dictatorship, war and chaos in the vast country, and paving the way for elections by mid-2006. Thousands of people, including regional presidents, gathered in the gardens of the presidential palace in the capital Kinshasa, cheering and waving paper replicas of the country's new flag as President Joseph Kabila signed into law the new constitution.

No issue is more important than security sector reform in determining the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s prospects for peace and development, says a new report from the Crisis Group. "Two particular challenges loom large: the security services must be able to maintain order during the national elections scheduled for April 2006 and reduce the country’s staggering mortality rate from the conflict – still well over 30,000 every month. On the military side, far more must be done to create an effective, unified army with a single chain of command, rather than simply demobilising militias and giving ex-combatants payout packages."

A UN donors' conference in Brussels will call for international donors to provide $681m (£400m) for an "action plan" for the DRC, three times the size of the UN appeal for the DRC in preceding years. More than 1,000 people a day die from violence in the country and since 1998 four million people have fallen victim to conflict, hunger and disease. Last year about 40,000 people a month were forced to flee their homes, most of them women and children. The UN also wants the European Union to provide troops to reinforce the embattled UN peacekeeping force of 16,000 men based in eastern Congo.

As the Uvira Programme Manager, you will take responsibility for all administrative aspects of the programme. This may include any or all aspects of finance, logistics and personnel needs. You are expected to play an active role in advocacy. You should have an interest and understanding of the basic rights of displaced populations and other civilian victims of violence and an ability to advocate locally in a constructive and inclusive manner.

Jean-Louis Ngalamulume, editor-in-chief of the Kinshasa-based newspaper "L'Eclaireur", has been imprisoned at the capital city's Penitentiary and Reeducation Centre (Centre pénitentiaire et de rééducation de Kinshasa, CPRK) since 31 January 2006. The journalist stands accused of "public injury" towards Denis Kisalambote, a land holder in Mount Amba (located on the east side of the city). The journalist was stopped on 27 January at approximately 2:00 p.m. (local time) by M. Kinuani, an officer of the judicial police force, who then drove him to the Kin-Mazière police station. In a verbal hearing, Ngalamulume was questioned regarding an article that appeared in the 11 January edition of his newspaper (issue 56), within which M. Kisalambote was described as being "incompetent" and "tribalist".

At least five candidates have registered to contest the presidency of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in elections set for April while about 300 political parties are expected to participate in the polls. As preparations for DRC's first democratic elections in over 40 years swing into gear, the country's interior ministry announced that it has so far registered some 300 political parties keen on taking part in the polls.

World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz, who has sought to cast himself as a champion of transparency, is facing accusations that his office is suppressing a report on a Bank-backed mining project in Africa that allegedly contributed to the deaths of dozens of people. Watchdog groups say that violence has marred the Dikulushi Copper-Silver Mining Project in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) where the bank's guarantee arm, the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA), provided 13.3 million dollars of political risk insurance to the Australian company, Anvil Mining, running the mine.

Innocent Nkung, a 35-year-old asylum seeker from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), suffered such homophobic and political persecution that he had to flee the DRC and is now fighting to stay in the UK after his asylum claim was refused. Innocent, who has a background in campaigning on human rights issues had been arrested in the DRC a number of times between 1992 and 2005. For example, he was arrested and detained in June 2004 after taking part in a demonstration against the UN's failure to act after the Rwandan army entered the Bukavu province.

At least 770 new cases of cholera were recorded in January in villages in and around Kinkondja, northern Katanga, raising fears that the epidemic - which has already killed 34 people - could spread throughout the province, Medécins Sans Frontières (MSF) has said. "We are seeing a similar pattern to the epidemic that infected 10,000 people in Katanga in 2002 and reached all the way south to Lubumbashi," said Roman Gitenet, MSF coordinator in Katanga province, southern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

In February 2005, the UN Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo, MONUC, created an office to address allegations of sexual abuse and exploitation by some of MONUC's civilian and military personnel. It was the first such UN office to have been set-up as part of a peacekeeping mission. The office undertook scores of investigations but closed in November 2005 when investigations were taken over by the UN's Office for Internal Oversight in New York. The person who created and ran the office was Nicole Dahrendorf, a specialist in law and human rights. Dahrendorf is still with MONUC as an advisor. IRIN recently interviewed her.

On 29 January 2006, the director of Radiotélévision LA COLOMBE (RTC) stationed in Rutshuru, North Kivu province, decided to suspend broadcasting for security reasons. On the evening of 24 January 2006, unidentified soldiers entered the RTC offices and confiscated a Pentium 2 computer, two Nokia cell phones and four dictaphones. Shortly afterwards, the same officers entered the guest house where four journalists from Goma were staying and took away their kitchen implements and luggage. Fearing for their lives, the journalists sought initial refuge in Rutshuru parish before making their way back to Goma.

Thousands of Congolese have fled fighting in the Kivu provinces in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) to western Uganda, the United Nations reported this week. The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said about 7,000 of the 20,000 new refugees in Uganda arrived this week. Meanwhile, the UN Organization Mission in the DRC (MONUC) said its efforts to remove Ugandan Lord Resistance Army (LRA) rebels from the country’s Garamba Park had been called off.

The people of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) voted a resounding "yes" at their Constitutional Referendum held in December 2005. The results of the referendum, announced by the President of the Independent Electoral Commission in January this year, showed that women had turned out in significant numbers to cast their votes. 60% of all voters were women, and 72% of the more than 9 million women registered as voters chose to endorse their Constitution.

In a rapidly developing series of events, Congolese refugees have already begun going back home from Uganda, just days after they fled fighting in the Kivu region of eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Over the weekend, UNHCR staff reported that some 15,000 refugees were staying in the open at an airfield in Kisoro, 450 km (280 miles) south-west of Kampala. That group has now shrunk to about 13,000; some 5,000 say they may be willing to move to a site further inland.

The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the closure of Radio Mwangaza, a community station in the northern Congolese city of Kisangani, which has aired programs criticizing local authorities. Court officials sealed its studios on January 11 in a dispute over alleged non-payment of music royalties, station director Jean-Pierre Lifoli told CPJ. Local press freedom groups said they believed the station, which was set up with French and Canadian support, has been targeted for its critical programming.

An overwhelming number of voters approved a constitutional referendum in December 2005, which is expected to lead to general elections in the Democratic Republic of Congo, official results of the poll show. The results, released on Wednesday by the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC), show that 84.31 voted for the new constitution and 15.69 percent against.

A 13-year old girl published her first novel on Wednesday, with the story of young love drawing plaudits from critics for its groundbreaking style. Magalie's Triumph by Victoire Calissa Ikama Ngala began arriving in bookshops around the Republic of Congo capital, Brazzaville, as critics noted its conversational, screenplay-like feel - a break from many French-language novels that are written in more formal prose.

Ahead of the upcoming series of debates on disarmament due to take place at the United Nations, a report by Amnesty International seeks to highlight stories from the DRC which reveal the human cost of the arms trade over the past few years. According to a humanitarian officer in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, "there are so many weapons here that each person makes his own law. There is practically complete impunity. Anyone who holds a weapon has authority over anyone and can threaten anyone."

Some 49,000 civilians who have fled fighting between the Congolese army and Mayi-Mayi militia in the northern province of Katanga are living under very difficult conditions, according to an official of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). "We need clothing, plastic sheeting, kitchen utensils, soap and other things," said Anne Edgerton, the OCHA spokeswoman in Kalemie, a town in Katanga Province, on Friday (January 6). She said nearly 120,000 people in the region had fled their villages since the government launched an operation to disarm the militia groups on 15 November 2005.