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.

A senior Rwandan government official dismissed on Thursday allegations that the army was responsible for a massacre nearly 10 years ago of hundreds of people in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), whose bodies were discovered recently in mass graves.

The social problems of the post-war transition in the Democratic republic of Congo were at the heart of the meeting between the president of the Episcopal Conference of Congo (CENCO), monsignor Laurent Monsengwo Pasinya, and the head of state, Joseph Kabila.

After 30 September the army of the Democratic Republic of Congo will begin using force to expel the rebel movements present in the east of the nation, stated Kasongo Kudura, spokesman for Congolese President Joseph Kabila.

The army of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) will on 30 September begin using force to expell all foreign rebel fighters in the country, a spokesman for President Joseph Kabila said on Thursday.

Three suspects were arrested into the murder of Pascal Kabungulu Kibembi, executive secretary of the Héritiers de la Justice' human rights association, killed in his home early on Sunday July 31 in Bukavu, provincial capital of South Kivu, in the east Democratic Republic of Congo.

Two mass graves believed to contain the remains of 39 civilians killed on Saturday in Ntulumamba village, in Kalonge Chiefdom 75 km north of Bukavu, have been reported to the UN Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (MONUC), a UN spokeswoman said.

Government troops recaptured on Tuesday the village of Nyamilima, one of three in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo held by local and Rwandan Hutu rebels, a senior army commander said.

UN troops in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo launched what commanders codenamed Operation Falcon Sweep on Monday to drive all armed groups from a locale in the territories of Walungu and Kabare, close to a national park in South Kivu Province, a UN military spokesman said.

At least seven protestors were killed and hundreds more arrested in demonstrations on Thursday in various suburbs Kinshasa, capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), and in other urban areas.