Access to at least 900,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) remains "impossible", according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) requires closer international financial supervision if the war-damaged nation is to fight official corruption, an International Monetary Fund (IMF) expert said last Friday. As the vast nation extracts itself from a four-year regional war, it must create a transparent government and banking system, said Jean Clement, assistant director of the IMF Africa Department, who is in Kinshasa to conduct an economic review.

The 17,000 Sudanese refugees who fled ethnic violence two weeks ago in a refugee settlement, about 80 km west of the town of Aru on the border between the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda, are "trickling back" to their settlements, Kitty McKinsey, regional public information officer with the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, told IRIN on Tuesday.

A consortium of women's development and human rights groups of South Kivu Province has made an impassioned plea to all stakeholders in the conflict in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) to resolve their differences and to channel their efforts into establishing a peaceful and stable nation.

Massive violations of human rights are still continuing in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), especially in areas controlled by the country's two main rebel groups - the Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie and the Mouvement pour la liberation du Congo - says the United Nations. A new report by the UN Special Rapporteur probing conditions in the DRC, Iulia Motoc, said that in rebel-held areas, especially in eastern DRC, "no human, civil, political, economic or social rights are observed".

The Statistics Expert will be in charge to take a census of Zongo and Libenge population. The researches and studies must be completed not later than December 2002.

As weekend fighting in the Central African Republic (CAR) sent small groups fleeing into the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) on Monday, UNHCR has expressed concerns that ethnic tensions could arise between the new arrivals and existing refugees.

Around 90 women from Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Kenya and Rwanda have gathered in eastern DRC's war-torn North Kivu Province to discuss and promote the role of women in conflict management.

Informal talks aimed at hammering out a power-sharing deal in the Democratic Republic of the Congo opened in Pretoria, South Africa, between the DRC government and two of the country's main rebel groups.
Related Link:
Breakthrough in power-sharing talks
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Ethnic clashes are continuing close to a refugee settlement in Ituri District, northeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, preventing thousands of Sudanese refugees who fled the violence last week from returning to their homes.

About 17,000 Sudanese refugees remained in hiding on Monday, having fled ethnic violence last week in a refugee settlement in northeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

This role is a very close supportive function to the Programme Co-ordinator. Applicants should enjoy working with and supporting local teams in a not always easy working environment.

President Sam Nujoma attended a one-day post-war summit of allies of the Democratic Republic of Congo in Kinshasa. The president met with DRC leader Joseph Kabila, Angola's Jose Eduardo dos Santos and Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe to review the way forward.

Despite the withdrawal of foreign forces from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), "elite criminal networks" have become so deeply entrenched that continued illegal exploitation of the country's natural resources is assured, independent of the physical presence of foreign armies, said the latest report from the United Nations Panel of Experts on the Illegal Exploitation of Natural Resources and Other Forms of Wealth of the DRC.

A cholera epidemic that erupted several weeks ago in Kasai Oriental Province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has so far resulted in 89 deaths of a total of 324 reported cases in the region, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported on Monday.

"There is effectively a state of anarchy reigning in the diamond fields of Mbuji-Mayi," said Amnesty International, as it launched a new report, entitled 'Democratic Republic of Congo: Making a Killing', about the diamond industry in government-controlled DRC. "Unarmed civilians, including children, are regularly being killed in cold blood, but no-one is ever brought to justice for these killings and nothing is being done to end the killings."

About 20,000 people who fled fighting over the weekend in Uvira on the shores of Lake Tanganyika, eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, have returned home, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said on Monday.

Thousands of civilians continue to flee from the town of Uvira, eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), after a rebel group recaptured it on Saturday from pro-government Mayi-Mayi forces.

Recent developments in the long process towards peace in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) should provide an opportunity for a determined effort by the international community to involve itself to bring to an end one of the most murderous wars on the African continent, says a civil society statement on the DRC distributed by lobby group Africa Action.

South African President Thabo Mbeki warned last Thursday that a peace deal signed in July for the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) could crumble, even as DRC army officers and rebel delegates arrived in South Africa for fresh talks aimed at salvaging the fragile peace.