The World Organisation Against Torture has asked concerned parties to write to the authorities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo asking them to guarantee the safety of Omba Lumbu, who has been arrested in connection with information he reportedly held concerning the involvement of the Malta Forrest Company Group in the plundering of natural resources in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Journalist Paulette Kimuntu and cameraman Kadima Baruani have been arrested in front of the South African embassy in Kinshasa. Both journalists work for the private television station Radiotélévision Kin-Malebo (RTKM). Kimuntu and Baruani were taken to the Police Special Services prison in Kin-Mazière. The authorities have yet to provide an official explanation for the journalists' arrest and detention.

Some 500 of the 4,000 people with acute respiratory illness reported since October in Bosobolo, in the northwest of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, have died, the World Health Organisation (WHO) reported last Friday.

The government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo has issued an alert regarding an outbreak of haemorrhagic fever. The fever has so far killed eight people in Orientale Province. This is a region plagued by fighting among various rebel groups and ethnic factions.

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has started issuing identity cards to tens of thousands of refugees and asylum seekers in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and neighbouring Republic of Congo (ROC), the agency reported.

A virulent flu epidemic in the Nord Ubangui zone of Equateur Province, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), has claimed 566 lives so far, the government announced on Tuesday.

You will be responsible for developing and co-ordinating SCUK's child soldier programme in the DRC. You will provide technical expertise and assist teams in planning and implementing new and ongoing activities, developing and delivering training in the interim care of former child soldiers and reintegration strategies.

A Ugandan-backed rebel group in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) said on Monday it had suspended its participation in peace talks being held in South Africa, complaining it had become "marginalised." RCD-Liberation Movement (RCD-ML) leader Mbusa Nyamwisi said the talks had become a "surrealistic psychodrama" where the signing of an accord had become more important than achieving peace.

There are growing reports of fighting breaking out between government troops and Mai-Mai militias in Katanga province, in the south of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The African Development Fund, the soft loan arm of the African Development Bank, has approved the equivalent of a US $4.26-million grant for institutional support to the DRC. The grant, to be drawn from the Technical Assistance Fund, will go to support projects aimed to boost the government's capacity to manage its macroeconomic and public investment programmes.

Hundreds of people are again arriving in North Kivu Province in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) following fierce fighting between two rebel armies for control of Bafwasende and Niania in the neighbouring Orientale Province, World Vision reported on Tuesday.

Despite the almost complete withdrawal of Rwandan and Ugandan forces from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) in recent weeks, fighting has intensified throughout eastern regions of the country where most of the over 2.27 million internally displaced persons (IDPs) are located, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) as at August 2002.

The Democratic Republic of Congo (former Zaire) is the third largest country in Africa and one of the poorest. Decades of dictatorship under Mobutu and ongoing and unresolved civil war have left much of the national infrastructure in tatters. The current project aims to revitalise existing primary health care services with additional support to referral facilities including a network of 90 health centres and three referral hospitals in 5 health zones targeting a population of 860 000 and full support to the Kindu referral Hospital SMI project in Goma.

A growing humanitarian catastrophe is unfolding in Ituri District, eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), as rebels and ethnic militia battle for dominance, according to a UN official.

Considered among the fist casualties of the four-year war in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), demobilised child soldiers live anxious lives, despite hope of peace on the horizon. "I have been taken care of for nine months now, but I do not know what I will do [after the help stops]," Thomas Elongo, a demobilised child soldier in the DRC capital, Kinshasa, and chosen spokesman of his comrades, told IRIN recently.

At least 12 people have died and 337 are infected in a cholera epidemic in Bunia, Ituri District, northeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, where rival ethnic militias have been fighting for control. "These figures should drop following the intervention of health teams," Doudou Luemba of the UN Children's Fund's (UNICEF) emergency department, told IRIN last Thursday.

We are seeking a TV and Radio Producer to become the Media Manager. S/he will lead the media campaign for the new Children at Risk Project and participate in the training and management of a team of Congolese producers in basic production skills. The Children at Risk project is focused on war-affected youth, facilitating re-integration, resettlement, and prevention of future combatants. This position reports to the Country Director, DRC and is located in Kinshasa, but travel within the DRC is expected.

Democratic Republic of Congo President Joseph Kabila has suspended a number of top government officials accused by the United Nations of stealing billions of dollars in public funds. Security Minister Mwenze Kongolo, Minister of the Presidency Augustin Katumba Mwanke and State Security Chief Didier Kazadi, were among the group of officials suspended. All have denied the charges.

Missionary group The Dehonian Fathers have denounced recent violence in the DRC. Father Dino Ruaro, one of the eye witnesses, writes: “What Bemba's soldiers did is beyond imagination. In 33 years in Africa I have never seen anything like this. The city of Mambasa was plundered."

The cholera outbreak in Kasai Oriental Province in the south of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) continues to worsen, with a total of 672 people affected by the epidemic, which broke out on 19 September, according to the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.