The peace conference on the eastern DRC launched on Monday 17 December at Grand Hotel Kinshasa is the dominant topic in today's local papers.

With the establishment of a permanent working group to monitor the implementation of the recommendations in favour of lasting peace in the Great Lakes region announced last Sunday and yesterday's meeting at Grand Hotel Kinshasa, Le Palmarès notes that "diplomatic solution is prevailing over the military option for a sustainable peace in eastern DRC and the entire Great Lake region."

Le Phare, for its part, writes "the Great Kivu is preparing for peace," alluding to the "preparatory work on the peace, security and development conference for the North and South Kivu provinces opened yesterday; the conference is attended by legitimate officials and representatives of the civil society from the North and South Kivus."

"Coordinated by Reverend Malu Malu, chairman of the Independent Electoral Commission and chaired by Mr. Vital Kamerhe, Spokesperson of the Parliament, the meeting has the virtue of demonstrating ...that the sons and daughters of North and South Kivus stand opposed to war and are resolved to stop it at all cost," reports La Tempête des Tropiques.
In the same vein, L`Observateur says, "More than US$ 1,000,600 needed to organize the peace conference scheduled for 27 December 2007 - 5 January 2008."

Le Palmarès reports, "after a round of setbacks suffered recently, FARDC has regained control of Katale, Bingi and Alimbongo," highlighting, "the troops of the 13th brigade of the FARDC arrived Sunday in the localities of Bingi and Alimbongo in the territory of Lubero that had been under control of the Mai-Mai and FDLR.". Echoing the commander of the 8th military region, the paper says "FARDC has gained control of Katale, a village situated approximately 10 kilometres from the Masisi Centre."

Alluding to the work of the joint commission DRC-Uganda that ended last Saturday, Le Potentiel comments in its headline "a new era of cooperation has opened." The paper however notes some hitches in the cooperation agreement reached between the DRC and Uganda in the area of hydrocarbon and the joint plan for the neutralization of the negative forces.