Human rights watchdog Amnesty International has expressed concern over mounting political and ethnic tensions in the North-Kivu province of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) - warning that this might spark renewed conflict in the country. In a report issued Wednesday, the group says additional fighting could undermine the DRC's uncertain peace process, and lead to human rights abuses in a region that has already become a byword for violations.

Over recent days, thousands of people have queued at voter registration centres in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to ensure they can participate in a landmark poll scheduled to take place by Jun. 30 next year. The Central African country is also due to hold a referendum on its proposed constitution in November.

Bank-supported projects in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Guatemala and Chad poignantly illustrate how natural resource exploitation can contribute to a deteriorating cycle of human rights abuses, civil conflict and corruption, says the Bretton Woods Project. As the social and environmental consequences of World Bank activities come under increased scrutiny, its avoidance tactics to adequately and explicitly address universal human rights and in its policies is becoming untenable.

In Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), journalists who face legal harassment because of their reporting will now have the support of legal advocates, thanks to the efforts of Journaliste en danger (JED). The IFEX member has signed a partnership with a local law firm, MBuy-Mbiye, that will provide legal assistance to media outlets and journalists who otherwise lack the resources to defend themselves in court. The initiative is supported by UNESCO.

The Congolese government's Commission of Enquiry into the murder of a prominent human rights activist has failed to bring justice, Human Rights Watch has said. The mandate of the Commission ended on September 6 without a report on its findings nor proposed actions to bring the perpetrators to justice. The government of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) set up the Commission of Enquiry following the assassination of Kabungulu Kibembi, executive secretary of Héritiers de la Justice (Heirs of Justice), a leading human rights organization in the eastern part of the country.

One of two army battalions in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) that the military reported as missing on 26 August, may not have been absent; while the other battalion has since returned to its barracks, Defence Minister Adolphe Onusumba said last Thursday. "There was no desertion, it was a problem of communication," he said at a news conference in Kinshasa, the nation's capital.

IDRC is seeking Expressions of Interest from suitably qualified and experienced individuals, firms, consortia, NGOs, or research centres to research and write a scholarly history of the Centre to be completed by 2008. IDRC is preparing to launch its History Project, which will culminate in the publication of a scholarly book on the history of the Centre. The book is not intended to be a vanity publication, but an exercise in critical reflection and learning. The desired book is expected to be accessible to non-academic audiences without compromising scholarly integrity and conventions.

Some 12,500 girls currently belong to government and non-government forces in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and a programme to disarm, demobilise and reintegrate all militias into society is failing them, Save the Children, an NGO, said in an August 2005 report. The report, titled "Forgotten Casualties of War", said many girls did not want to be in the disarmament and reintegration process. It said they did not see themselves as "child soldiers", but as "wives" or camp followers and, therefore, were not entitled to demobilisation and reintegration benefits.

The day after a dissident army leader in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) called for an insurrection, the 53rd Army Battalion and four companies of the 2nd Mixed Battalion in the east of the country went missing. Last Thursday, a 17-page communiqué attributed to a dissident army general, Laurent Nkunda, was secretly distributed in Goma. The communiqué called for the renewal of hostilities against the government in Kinshasa. However, evidence that the troops deserted to join Nkunda’s insurgency remains circumstantial.

A massive increase in demand for tin caused tin prices to rise dramatically in early 2004, and tin ore is now being used by military groups to fund themselves in Eastern parts of the Democratic Republic Congo (DRC), according to a new Global Witness report. "There are no international mechanisms in place to regulate this trade, therefore allowing various armed factions, many with appalling human rights records, unfettered access to world markets, in order to generate funds," says the report.

Since the mid-1990s, millions of Congolese have fled their homes to escape fighting between rebel groups and the national government in a complex conflict which has, at times, involved as many as nine neighbouring states. Displacement peaked in 2003, with an estimated 3.4 million people forced from their homes, most of them in eastern DRC. The UN estimated that over 2.3 million people remained displaced as of mid-2005.

A human rights campaigner and Christian Aid partner who pleaded with Tony Blair for justice in Congo has been murdered in his home. Pascal Kabungulu Kibembi was executive secretary of Heritiers de la Justice, a Christian Aid partner founded in 1991 to challenge the brutal excesses of the then Congolese President Mobutu’s dictatorship. Mr Kibembi, whose uncompromising campaigning put him in the line of fire, was shot in the early hours of Sunday morning by three men who broke into his home in Bukavu in eastern DRC.

Ongoing conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has underscored the difficulties of bringing lasting peace to this vast Central African country. Nearly 3.5 million people have died, mostly from malnutrition and preventable diseases such as diarrhea and malaria, since civil war first began in the DRC in 1996. While an accord to end conflict was signed in South Africa at the end of 2002, lives are still being claimed.

The UN Security Council has extended a two-year-old arms embargo on DR Congo and threatened to crack down on those who violate the sanctions. The resolution, adopted unanimously, says armed groups in eastern Congo "perpetuate a climate of insecurity in the whole region". The arms embargo applies to "any recipient" of weapons in the country.

Registration of voters started on Monday in two provinces outside Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), as preparations continued for general elections scheduled for 2006, officials said. The two provinces are Oriental in the northeast and Bas Congo in the west. "So far 10 out of 21 registration centres [in Bunia] are operational, and we are planning to open more," Apollinaire Malu Malu, president of the Independent Electoral Commission, told IRIN on Tuesday from Bunia.

Most of the people living in the village of Kigalama, in the Democratic Republic of Congo's (DRC) South Kivu Province, have fled after Rwandan rebels launched an attack there last week, the provincial governor said on Monday. "Thirteen villagers and seven Rwandan rebels were killed," Didace Kaningini Kyoto, the governor, said. He said almost 5,000 people normally lived in Kigalama, about 130km southwest of the provincial capital, Bukavu. Most of them have now fled.

Around 890 people displaced from their homes almost seven years ago in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) arrived in Kisangani, capital of Orientale Province, on Sunday after 43 gruelling days on a boat on the Congo River that came from Equateur Province. "We are now in the process of finding the means to take them to [the villages] they came from as soon as possible," Hubert Molisho Nendolo, Kisangani’s deputy governor, said.

International Alert has published a new report on sexual violence against women and girls entitled "Women's Bodies as a Battleground: Sexual Violence Against Women and Girls During the War in the Democratic Republic of Congo, South Kivu (1996-2003)". This report, based on interviews with 492 women and 50 soldiers in Eastern DRC, is the result of research carried out by two Congolese women's organisations, Réseau des Femmes pour un Développement Associatif (RFDA), Réseau des Femmes pour la Défense des Droits et la Paix (RFDP), and the UK-based peacebuilding organisation, International Alert.

The Congolese army must prevent further violence among its rival factions that has caused unnecessary civilian casualties, Human Rights Watch said after security forces in the eastern city of Goma fired mortars against soldiers based in a crowded neighborhood, killing two children and injuring 10 other civilians. The violence among army factions comes at a time when security forces across the country have been on high alert for weeks. Opposition parties had called for mass protests to force the Congolese transitional government to step down on June 30, the deadline originally set by the 2003 Sun City Accord.

Continued fighting in the mining areas of eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) threatens the country's fragile peace and adds daily to the 3.3 million death toll in the world's most devastating conflict since World War 2, says Global Witness. It has also contributed towards the delay in the Congolese elections, which were originally scheduled for June 30. The international demand for tin has led to a US$50 million trade in the metal in eastern DRC with military factions vying to control the lucrative mining areas there, according to a report released by Global Witness.