The president of the rebel Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie (RCD-Goma), Adolphe Onusumba, has again called for an international independent commission of inquiry into the recent mutiny and killings in Kisangani, northeastern Democratic Republic of
the Congo (DRC). He said on Radio Rwanda on Friday that the RCD had nothing to hide.

MONUC, the United Nations mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), has accused the Rwandan-backed Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie (RCD-Goma) armed opposition movement of "grave violations of human rights and humanitarian law" in the eastern DRC city of Kisangani, where the RCD is the de facto administrative authority.

At least 5,000 people have been trapped since 31 March in the town of Kindamba, in the Pool region of the Republic of Congo (ROC), and the Congolese government has not yet granted the international community access to assess humanitarian needs there, the office of the United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator reported on Monday.

The Inter-Congolese dialogue held at Sun City in South Africa, which lasted more than seven weeks, finally produced a partial agreement on a transition government for the Democratic Republic of Congo on 19 April. After years of war, the accord reached between President Joseph Kabila and Jean-Pierre Bemba of the MLC (Mouvement pour la libiration du Congo) marks an important new political alignment. However ICG's Africa program Co-Director Fabienne Hara said: "Despite the agreement, the negotiations are far from complete and the future of the Democratic Republic of Congo remains uncertain. The talks left the RCD (Rassemblement congolais pour la Dimocratie) and its military ally Rwanda isolated, threatening renewed hostilities and even partition. Strong international leadership will be essential to reach an all-inclusive agreement".

The spokesman for rebel group Rassemblement
congolais pour la democratie (RCD-Goma), Kin Kiey Mulumba, told IRIN on
Monday that "no real progress" had been made during talks held among
opposition groups and the RCD late last week in Cape Town, South Africa. The
informal talks had been held, "to see what can be done to push forward the
peace process", following the end of the inter-Congolese dialogue (ICD).

The food and nutritional situation of over two million internally displaced people (IDPs), particularly in northeastern parts of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), and of over 330,000 refugees from neighbouring countries, "is cause for serious concern", according to the latest report from the Global Information and Early Warning System on Food and Agriculture (GIEWS).

President Benjamin Mkapa of Tanzania and the head of the visiting United Nations Security Council delegation have called on political leaders in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Burundi to shoulder their responsibility for restoring peace in their countries.

The food and nutritional situation of over two million internally displaced people (IDPs), particularly in northeastern parts of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), and of over 330,000 refugees from neighbouring countries, "is cause for serious concern", according to the latest report from the Global Information and Early Warning System on Food and Agriculture (GIEWS).

The government of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) on Monday ruled out an extension of peace talks designed to end a four-year civil war, saying a deal it had reached with one rebel group was final. "The Inter-Congolese Dialogue has run its term and is consequently finished," Foreign Minister Leonard She Okitundu told private television channel Antenne A. "The facilitators should now acknowledge the agreement that was signed in Sun City," he said.

he Rwandan-backed rebel Rassemblement congolais
pour la democratie (RCD-Goma) has formed an alliance with five other
political parties in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) to fight
attempts by President Joseph Kabila and the Mouvement pour la liberation du
Congo (MLC) to form a new government, following an agreement made between
them at the end of the inter-Congolese dialogue (ICD) last week.

The entire Pool region of the Republic of Congo (ROC) remains inaccessible, even for humanitarian missions, with Congolese authorities stating that access will not be possible until at least 25 April, the office of the United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator in the ROC reported on Monday.

A Congolese rebel commander says the country's largest rebel movement is divided over whether to join a new power-sharing government with President Joseph Kabila.

The rebel Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie (RCD-Goma) has dismissed "as a joke" the power-sharing agreement signed on 19 April between the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) government, the rebel Mouvement pour la liberation du Congo (MLC) and members of the unarmed opposition and civil society at the end of the inter-Congolese dialogue (ICD), the BBC reported.

Last week's convergence around a set of proposals from South African President Thabo Mbeki seemed in danger of falling apart on Monday when a plenary session of the inter-Congolese dialogue (ICD) failed to take place, then postponed until the following day. Meanwhile, the parties to the dialogue have submitted to the facilitators of the dialogue objections and counterproposals to Mbeki's blueprint for the transition period.

A journalist from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Jose Feruzi Samwegele, remains in detention after seven days with no charges brought against him, the international freedom-of-the-press advocacy organisation, Reporters sans frontieres (RSF), reported on 10th April.

Up to 1,000 people were killed over the weekend as violence swept through the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, humanitarian groups active in the area saidon Monday.

José Feruzi Samwegele, a 33 year-old journalist with the public broadcaster RTNC 2 (Radiotélévision nationale congolaise 2) was arrested at the entrance to network offices in Kinshasa/Lingwala on 3 April 2002 by soldiers of the Congolese Armed Forces (Forces armées congolaises, FAC). He was taken to a jail in Kinshasa/Kintambo run by the Military Detection of Anti-State Activities, Military Intelligence (Détection Militaire des Activités anti-patrie, renseignements militaires, DEMIAP).

he Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie (RCD-Goma) armed opposition group on Tuesday gave custody of 104 child soldiers to the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) and its partner agencies, International Committee of the Red Cross, Save the Children-UK (SCF-UK) and SOS Grands lacs in Goma, eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). According to a statement from UNICEF on Thursday, the liberation of this first group of children signals the start of a larger agreement reached with RCD Goma to ultimately demobilise some 2,600 child soldiers from within their ranks.

In its 2001 report on the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Human Rights Watch (HRW) says that President Joseph Kabila promised human rights reforms, but delivered "relatively little".

Most claims of peace violations in the DRC are unfounded, UN secretary general's special envoy Amos Namanga Ngongi has said. Speaking at the official opening of the summit of signatories and heads of state to the ceasefire agreement, Ngongi said the UN had received more than 200 complaints of peace violations and had investigated most of them.