Expressing serious concern about the continuing hostilities by militias and foreign armed groups in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and the threat to elections in the country, the Security Council today extended the United Nations Organization Mission (MONUC) there until next September, with an additional 300 troops.

A meeting of representatives of the governments of Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Rwanda and Uganda on ways of handling foreign armed groups based in northeastern DRC did not take place on Thursday in Uganda as had been announced earlier, a Ugandan government official said.

A county court in the Democratic Republic of Congo's northeastern town of Bunia in Ituri District sentenced a local militia leader to 15 years imprisonment on Thursday for forgery and extorting money from the public.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) told the Congolese government to carry out economic reforms rather than print more money to pay civil servants who are threatening to go on strike.

A court in the Democratic Republic of Congo sentenced eight presidential guardsmen to life imprisonment on Tuesday for the murder of an official of the national aviation agency.

"Massive human rights violations at all levels" in the Democratic Republic of Congo were denounced in a report presented to the United Nations Security Council by the independent human rights expert Ritinga Frederic Pacere.

Thirty-some militiamen of two different armed groups were killed by the armed forces in a series of operations aimed at regaining control of territory in the Ituri province, in the north-east of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The government of the Democratic Republic of Congo has rejected a proposal by Uganda to redeploy its troops to eastern Congo to hunt Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebels as well as other Ugandan rebels groups there, Congolese government spokesman and Minister for Information Henri Mova Sakanyi said on Friday.

Uganda sought approval on Thursday from the Democratic Republic of Congo to redeploy troops into eastern Congo to hunt members of the rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) who entered the country in September, Foreign Minister Sam Kutesa said.

Public schools in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) have reopened after a delay caused by 230,000 teachers who went on strike from 5 September to demand better pay.