Leaders of a Rwandan armed group operating from eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) announced on Thursday their intention to end attacks against their homeland, according to the UN Mission in the DRC, known as MONUC.

In response to fears that a recent outbreak of the deadly Marburg virus in Angola could spread across the 1,750-km border with the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the Congolese minister of health, Emile Bongeli, said on Tuesday that the government had set up a quarantine zone along the frontier.

A new UN report issued on Thursday said that efforts to stop UN peacekeepers in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) from sexually abusing the local population have not been effective and it recommended establishing better mechanisms to investigate cases.

Three months after the resumption of fighting between Lendu and Hema militias in Ituri, a district in the northeast of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), a vivid picture of human-rights violations is emerging.

The Congolese government has arrested Thomas Lubanga, the leader of the Union des patriotes Congolais (UPC), a key political movement in the northeastern district of Ituri, a government official announced on Tuesday.

Some 550 former combatants surrendered their arms on Sunday and Monday in the northeastern district of Ituri, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), in a disarmament effort targeting 4,000 militiamen, the largest number so far.

Sixteen people died on Saturday in the western province of Equateur, in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), after a boat capsized on the River Congo in Lukolela Territory, about 200 km from the provincial capital of Mbandaka, a local official told IRIN.

The World Bank has announced a US $20-million grant to boost the fight against HIV/AIDS in six countries in Africa's Great Lakes region, which are home to an estimated six million people living with the condition.

Peacekeepers in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) seized guns and ammunitions on Wednesday in the embattled northeastern district of Ituri, the UN Mission there, known as MONUC, said.

A senior UN civilian official accused of sexual misconduct in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is no longer under investigations; another senior official has been dismissed, Fred Eckhard, the spokesman for the UN Secretary-General, announced on Thursday.