International envoys converged on eastern Congo to help end some of the worst violence in years as thousands of anxious, hungry refugees struggled to get home amid a fragile ceasefire.

A senior UN official today acknowledged that the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s presidential and parliamentary elections this weekend would be problematic.

An outbreak of bird flu in Congo would be “catastrophic,” but more attention is needed for other diseases which are killing thousands every day in the war-ravaged country, a senior UN humanitarian official said today.

Aid officials and government leaders from around southern Africa met today in an effort to stave off a potential famine across the region.