The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) announced on Tuesday the repatriation of the last 263 Angolans in the refugee camp at Kisenge in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)'s Katanga Province, ending a refugee programme that had run for more than 20 years.

The number of Rwandan refugees returning home from eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has increased dramatically since a Rwandan rebel group announced recently that it would disarm and go home peacefully, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reported on Tuesday.

New refugees have been fleeing the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to Rwanda since April causing crowding in Rwandan border centres, according the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) which has begun transferring the existing refugees to a camp farther inland.

The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) repatriated on Thursday the first 109 of 57,000 refugees from the Republic of Congo (ROC) to their homes in Equateur Province, northwestern Democratic Republic of Congo

The UN refugee agency, UNHCR, transferred on Friday 149 Congolese refugees from a transit centre near the Rwanda-Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) border to a newly established refugee camp

The first 100 of some 58,000 refugees who had been living in the Republic of Congo (ROC) in the past six years are due to begin returning to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)'s Equateur Province on Wednesday, a spokeswoman for the UN refugees agency, UNHCR, announced.

At least 3,300 Congolese from North Kivu Province, eastern DRC, have fled into Rwanda since the beginning of April to escape insecurity caused by militiamen, a UN official told IRIN on Friday.

Although conflicts continue to smoulder in parts of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), most refugees could soon return to their homes in Equateur Province, in the northwest of the country.

The World Bank has announced a US $20-million grant to boost the fight against HIV/AIDS in six countries in Africa's Great Lakes region, which are home to an estimated six million people living with the condition.

As Zambia prepares to repatriate the last of the Angolan refugees on its soil by the end of 2005, the fate of thousands of Congolese refugees, sheltered in camps throughout the country, remains unclear.