Right now in the Democratic Republic of Congo: UN peacekeeping forces stand by useless as the rebels bump up recruitment of child soldiers and refugees keep pouring out of conflict zones, raising fears of a cholera outbreak in camps… here’s what the world is saying about this dire situation:

A situation map from Relief Web for 11 November:

Peacekeeping is not for wimps. Three years ago the United Nations formally recognised that it had a responsibility to offer protection from genocide, ethnic cleansing and war crimes when governments “manifestly fail” to guard their citizens against such iniquities. Now Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary-general, has asked for a modest 3,000 extra troops to reinforce the 17,000-strong international peacekeeping force in Congo. Known by its French acronym MONUC, this force has proved unable to shield civilians from the effects of the violence between the Congolese army and Laurent Nkunda’s National Congress for the Defence of the People in the north Kivu province. — Guardian

Human rights group urges more Congo peacekeepers. The humanitarian crisis in eastern Congo has exploded since rebel leader Laurent Nkunda launched an offensive Aug. 28, stopping his forces at the outskirts of Goma, the provincial capital, before declaring a cease-fire. Retreating Congolese troops and rebels sent the population fleeing for their lives, and sporadic clashes have broken out since then. The U.N. force did little to prevent the rebels’ advance, enraging the population. — Associated Press

DR Congo angry at rebel demands. The Democratic Republic of Congo government has rejected calls for talks with a rebel leader whose forces control eastern areas. Gen Laurent Nkunda has said his forces would topple the government if no agreement to negotiate is struck. But DR Congo’s ambassador to the United Nations said Gen Nkunda should be in jail for war crimes. Gen Nkunda commands 6,000 Tutsi rebels in the east, where some 250,000 people have been displaced by recent fighting. The rebel leader says his forces are respecting a ceasefire, although they still surround the city of Goma, which is protected by UN peacekeepers. —BBC

Congo-Kinshasa: Recruitment of Child Soldiers Rising. As fighting continues in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), child recruitment by rebels in the combat zones has been reported, UN and human rights activists have said. “Thirty-seven children were recruited [to reinforce rebel troops] in Rutshuru [north of Goma] two weeks ago,” Jaya Murthy, spokesman for the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), told IRIN. Children separated from their families were more at risk, he said. The boys were forced to fight while the girls became “wives” to the soldiers. “There has been an upsurge in the number of children being recruited since the latest violence began,” Ishbel Matheson, spokeswoman for Save the Children, said. The NGO was taking care of several children who had escaped recently from the armed groups. An estimated 3,000 children were being held by the armed groups before the recent violence broke out, she said, but numbers were expected to soar. — All Africa

DRC: Running in Fear. Journalists and activists write a lot about r-pe in Congo, frankly, a lot more than they write about the war. I understand why — just before I took this shot of IDPs languishing in a school, I interviewed a man whose thirteen-year-old daughter had been r-ped by a government soldier the week prior. Immediately after I took the shot, just outside the door of the classroom, three older women approached me who’d been gang r-ped by Nukunda’s rebels a few days before. Stories of s-xual abuse in Congo are — very literally — pedestrian. Many of the women who walk by you in a settlement like this have been terrorized by it. The problem with much of the reporting on s-xual violence in Congo — my own included, sometimes — is that it lacks context, often because the context is so complicated that journalists and editors decide to gloss over it. — Untold Stories

UN chiefs urges Congo ceasefire. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called for an immediate ceasefire to urgently help “at least 100,000 refugees” cut off by fighting in rebel-held areas in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo. He said 250,000 people have been displaced by the fighting in eastern DR Congo and for 100,000 trapped behind rebel lines around Rutshuru and East Masisi the “lifeline has been cut off.” — msn