'The Soldiers Didn't Ask Any Questions. They Just Shot Him'

KIWANGA - Jumy Kasereka told his mother the Tutsi rebel soldiers would not harm him. After all, he was a schoolteacher, not a fighter, and they would see he was too sick from malaria to move. Kasereka begged his mother to leave with the tens of thousands of others who Laurent Nkunda's rebels ordered out of the town of Kiwanga after they seized it from Hutu fighters. But Felista Maska refused to go. Hours later, one of Nkunda's soldiers arrived at the door of the small earth and wicker home, pushed his way in, and, without a word, dragged the 26-year-old teacher out.

Kenya to Host DR Congo Summit As Clashes Threaten Ceasefire

RUTSHURU, DR Congo - Rebels and pro-government militia clashed for a second successive day in the Democratic Republic of Congo Wednesday, rocking a fragile ceasefire as Kenya announced it would host an emergency summit on the crisis.

"There will be a summit in Kenya on Friday," Kenyan Foreign Minister Moses Wetangula said, adding that the presidents of DR Congo, Rwanda, Uganda, Burundi and representatives of the United Nations and African Union would attend.

"The agenda will be... the fighting in eastern DR Congo and how to resolve it," said Wetangula.

UN Aid Convoy Crosses Congo Frontline

A UN aid convoy crossed into a rebel-controlled area in eastern Congo today to provide relief supplies to tens of thousands of people displaced by fighting.

The 12-vehicle convoy crossed the frontline between government troops and rebels controlled by Laurent Nkunda, in the first mission of its kind since the violence started in August.

DRC: Aid Agencies Fear Humanitarian Disaster in North Kivu

UNITED NATIONS - The situation in the strategic city of Goma in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) was relatively calm Thursday after a night of fierce shooting and widespread looting, the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reported.

However, tens of thousands of Congolese fleeing the latest fighting between government forces and armed opposition groups is straining the already overburdened system of camps for North Kivu province's estimated one million internally displaced persons.

How Rebels Profit From Blood and Soil

LUNTUKULU, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO - Once a week, a huge, battered flatbed truck creaks its way down a mountain road and stops in this small village in eastern Congo, where the dirt track ends at a small army checkpoint.

EU Involvement in DRC Mining Project Draws Protest

LONDON - The involvement of the European Union in a mining project in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has drawn a chorus of protest from local and international human rights advocates. They say the project is rife with problems relating to transparency and accountability.

Located some 175 km north-west of the DRC city of Lubumbashi in Katanga province, the Tenke Fungurume vein is thought to be one of the largest unexploited seams of copper and cobalt in the world.

Soldiers, UN Retreat As Rebels Advance in Congo

KILIMANYOKA, Congo  - Congo rebels closed in relentlessly on the provincial capital of Goma on Tuesday, despite being attacked by U.N. peacekeepers in helicopters. Government troops scrambled south in a full-scale retreat, fleeing in tanks, trucks and on foot.

Cell Phone Boycott Protests War in Congo

WASHINGTON - A student and activist coalition is urging cell phone users to "Cell Out" this afternoon in solidarity with the people of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), where millions have died as a result of conflict over coltan, a rare mineral used in cell phones and other electronics.

Friends of the Congo is working with university students at dozens of colleges and universities in the United States and around the world to carry out a cell phone boycott between noon and 6:00 PM Wednesday.