Kinshasa

South African President Thabo Mbeki left the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) late on Wednesday after eight hours of high-level talks on the post-war transition process in the vast Central African country. On arrival earlier on Wednesday, Mbeki went straight into talks with President Joseph Kabila.

At least four people were killed and 60 others arrested early on Monday during violent protests in the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) over rumours of a government plan to delay the country’s first democratic elections since independence in 1960, authorities said.

Security forces deployed on Monday on the streets of the Democratic Republic of Congo’s (DRC) capital to quell demonstrators who burned tires to protest a recent government announcement delaying upcoming elections nationwide. Residents and students set tyres ablaze in several poor, crowded neighbourhoods near Kinshasa’s airport.

The first of thousands of displaced people in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)’s Equateur province have returned home as part of a pilot project being undertaken jointly by the government and the United Nations. On Friday, 375 internally displaced persons left Equateur’s provincial capital, Mbandaka for their homes.

Malnutrition is one of the main causes of death in prisons in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), according to a special United Nations report obtained by AFP on Thursday. The study by the UN peacekeeping mission in the DRC found that more than 50 prisoners had died of starvation since March this year.

President Joseph Kabila accused Rwanda on Friday of trying to create a confrontation with the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in an effort to disrupt Congolese efforts to secure the country and move toward 2005 elections. It was Kabila’s first public statement since Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame began warning last week that his country would act against Rwanda Hutu rebels in the eastern DRC.

A United Nations observer patrol encountered what it believed to be 100 Rwandan soldiers at a town in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), marking the first UN-reported sightings since Rwanda threatened to send its forces against Rwandan Hutu rebels. The UN Security Council set closed-door talks for Thursday on the crisis threatening to reawaken central Africa’s devastating five-year, six-nation war.

Rwanda has sent thousands of troops into the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in recent days, a Western diplomat in Kinshasa said on Monday, but United Nations officials said they had found no evidence of such an incursion. The Western diplomat, speaking on condition he not be identified, said that Rwandan troops have been seen crossing into the DRC since Friday.

Rescue crews were searching for survivors on Monday after a large wooden canoe capsized on a lake in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, killing at least 23 people, a spokesperson for the United Nations peacekeeping force said. About 43 people survived the accident late on Sunday on Lake Kivu and were safe ashore.

By embarking on an unprecedented tour of the troubled east of his country next week, President Joseph Kabila of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) hopes to show that the former Zaire is reunited after five years of war. ”It’s risky. It will be brave of him if he goes,” a regional analyst said in Kinshasa.

Self-employed diamond diggers have killed 19 street urchins in the central Democratic Republic of Congo town of Mbuji-Mayi, allegedly in revenge for theft, press reports in Kinshasa said on Monday. The attacks took place in the DRC diamond capital on Saturday after people who make a living searching for the stones hunted down the youths who apparently stole part of their haul.

About 15 000 people have fled towns and villages near Numbi, in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), after rebellious soldiers clashed there with army forces, a United Nations spokesperson said on Wednesday. An army spokesperson was unable to say where the fleeing people had sought refuge.

The World Bank has granted the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) -million to develop community projects in education, health and food security, an official said on Saturday. Last year, the DRC began slowly emerging from a five-year war in which about 2,5-million people lost their lives.

The Twa from the north-eastern district of Ituri, in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s (DRC) Orientale province, retracted on Monday statements they made in 2003 of having witnessed acts of cannibalism against their people by a former rebel group, the Mouvement de Liberation du Congo.

The United States has granted the Democratic Republic of Congo’s (DRC) government -million in aid for development programmes, the head of the US Agency for International Development (USAid) has said in Kinshasa. The USAid chief also urged political players in the DRC to settle internal squabbles.

South African President Thabo Mbeki visited the Democratic Republic of Congo on Monday amid a spiraling political crisis threatening a peace process largely brokered by South Africa to end the DRC’s five-year war. DRC President Joseph Kabila gave an airport welcome to Mbeki, who has played a key role in helping to end the 1998-2003 conflict and launch a national-unity government.

About 300 000 civilians have fled their homes in the area of Kalehe in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) where a rebel general is holding out against government troops, relief workers have reported in Kinshasa. Clashes have occurred around Kalehe, about 60km from the key town of Bukavu.

The Democratic Republic of Congo’s transitional government, consisting of former wartime rivals for power, has agreed on draft legislation regarding nationality and citizenship, officials said on Tuesday. Nationality issues were among the causes of wars that raged across the vast Central African country from 1996.

An airport near the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) capital, Kinshasa, that was the scene of a horrific accident in 1996 in which 350 people died has reopened to traffic, a report said on Thursday. On January 8 1996 an Antonov aircraft crashed on take-off, plunging into a crowded market.

Congolese President Joseph Kabila pledged on Wednesday to use troops massing in eastern Congo to disarm and send home former Rwandan soldiers blamed for that country’s 1994 genocide. Rwanda has accused the Congo of beefing up forces in its east in recent weeks as a prelude an invasion of Rwanda, Congo’s chief foreign enemy during a 1998-2002 central African war in the Congo

Ten years after Rwandan Hutu extremists massacred their country’s Tutsi minority, ethnic Tutsis in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) have claimed they are the target of a new genocide and threatened Kinshasa with war if nothing is done about it.

Rwanda is massing troops on the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the DRC army has said in a statement, as a dissident army general in the east, allegedly backed by Kigali, was poised to make good on a threat to start a new war.

A coup attempt was thwarted overnight on Thursday in the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo, where an officer announced on national radio he had taken control in Kinshasa and the government had resigned, Information Minister Vital Kamerhe said on Friday.

Crisis talks took place in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Europe and at the United Nations on Monday to try to stop more bloodshed in the vast central African country after at least 100 people died in 10 days of unrest. Belgian Foreign Minister Louis Michel held talks with President Laurent Kabila in search of a peaceful solution to the crisis in the DRC, sparked when rebellious soldiers overran Bukavu, a key eastern town.

The capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo, which was the scene over the past two days of violent anti-United Nations demonstrations following the fall of the eastern town of Bukavu, was paralysed on Friday by a total lack of public transport. The capital’s streets and avenues were packed with people trying to get around the city on foot.

Clashes between government troops and former rebel soldiers erupted in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) city of Bukavu and at least four people have been killed, United Nations officials said on Thursday. A foreigner working for the UN was also wounded in the leg by a stray bullet.

The Democratic Republic of Congo’s (DRC) transition government on Monday urged warlords from the strife-torn northeastern Ituri region to back the vast Central African country’s transition to peace and democracy. ”The country is counting on you to back the transition process,” said DRC Vice-President Azarias Ruberwa.

The Democratic Republic of Congo’s (DRC) mine registry has accused the World Bank of trying to gain control of the country’s rich resources on Wednesday. ”Parts of your e-mail sent to the head of the office of the mining minister are a dishonour to you and represent a scandal on the scale of Watergate,” said a registry letter.

Journalists are harassed and abused in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), but for the first time in five years none has been jailed this year for doing his or her job, according to a movement called Journalist in Danger. The secretary general of the movement noted ”a current trend towards a distinct improvement in press freedom”.