President Kabila will rally supporters at Stade des Martyrs, while Etienne Tshisekedi has announced a rally in the capital upon his arrival at Njili airport. Vital Kamerhe will also hold a final rally at Stade Tata Raphael.

Presidential candidate Vital Kamerhe held a meeting at Independence Square in Bukavu, South Kivu Province, on Monday. The president of the Union for the Congolese Nation (UNC) told his many supporters in his hometown that if elected his priority will be “restoring state authority.”

A judge in North Kivu province sentenced a UN driver and his accomplice on Wednesday to three years in prison and a US$ 25,000 fine for trying to smuggle minerals to Rwanda. There have been other cases of UN peacekeepers involved in gold smuggling and even accused of providing weapons to rebels in eastern Congo.

An army Colonel accused of ordering the mass rape of at least 49 women in eastern Congo has been sentenced to 20 years in prison.

The United Nations Security Council imposed targeted measures including travel bans and asset freezes on four Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) leaders and a former Congrès National pour la Défense du Peuple (CNDP) commander integrated in the Congolese Armed Forces (FARDC), on Wednesday, at the request of the permanent missions to the United Nations of France, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

President Joseph Kabila announced on Thursday night that he was suspending all mining operations around Walikale, North Kivu province, during a speech at a banquet in Goma attended by local authorities and representatives of the civil society.

A draft UN report says the Rwandan army and its rebel allies committed crimes in the Democratic Republic of Congo between 1996 and 1998 that could be classified as genocide.

Rebels from the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) have been reported in the North Kivu region of Walikale, where they are, once again, conducting a terror campaign against the local population.

The FDLR is one of the most brutal rebel force that Africa has ever known. They have been branded as terrorists by the United Nations, the European Union, and the United States.

Four days after Congo Government spokesman Lambert Mende lambasted Human Rights Watch about what he called “exaggerated” allegations on the situation in eastern Congo and the Congolese Armed Forces (FARDC) military operation (Kimia II) against the Rwandan Hutu militia FDLR, the NGO responded with new allegations against the FARDC and their Rwandan Defense Force (RDF) allies in another operation (Umoja Wetu) earlier this year against the FDLR.