KINSHASA, 15 Sep 2005 (IRIN) - Reports that troops are defecting in large numbers to join a dissident former general fermenting a rebellion in the northeast of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) were refuted by an army spokesman in Kinshasa as well as by a letter purportedly written by the ex-general, Laurent Nkunda.

A spokeswomen for the UN Mission in the DRC, MONUC, Jacqueline Chenard, said a letter arrived at the office in Goma, the provincial capital of North-Kivu that was signed by Nkunda which stated, "We don’t plan to revive war in the country except in a situation of self defence."

Chenard said the letter, dated 8 September, was also addressed to government authorities in the province. However, she said MONUC could not confirm the authenticity of the letter whose total contents she would not reveal.

The Congolese army's chief of the general staff, Lt-Gen Kisempia Sungilanga, held a news conference in Kinshasa on Tuesday and said that reports of a massive desertion by Tutsi soldiers in the DRC were "disinformation".

Raymond Thibodeaux

NAIROBI, 15 September 2005 (VOA). Eritrean authorities say they have arrested two locally-hired employees of the U.S. Embassy in the Eritrean capital of Asmara on charges of human trafficking.

Eritrea's Information Ministry said Thursday the two employees, Eritreans hired by the U.S. Embassy, would be held accountable for illegal activities related to human trafficking.

The U.S. embassy spokesman in Asmara had no comment on the arrests. Eritrean officials declined to elaborate on the alleged human trafficking or the individuals charged.

JOHANNESBURG, 14 Sep 2005 (IRIN) - Zambia has launched a strategic plan to combat malaria, which kills 50,000 of its people every year and causes 40 percent of infant deaths.

Dr Victor Mukonka, director of Public Health and Research at the Ministry of Health, told IRIN that the National Malaria Strategic Plan for 2006-2011 would scale up interventions to combat the disease and provide 80 percent of its target population with prevention measures and effective treatment in the next three years.

"The disease accounts for 46 percent of outpatients in our hospitals," Mukonka noted.

LAGOS, 14 Sep 2005 (IRIN) - As thousands of angry Nigerians took to the streets on Thursday to protest against 30 percent hikes in fuel price, across West Africa some of the world's poorest also were feeling the pinch, struggling to cope with the record-breaking cost of crude and its knock-on effect on basic goods.

Chanting slogans and waving banners, noisy protestors poured onto the grounds of the Lagos Governor's office denouncing fuel hikes decided 26 August by President Olusegun Obasanjo's government.

"We do not accept the increases and we're asking the government to revert to the old prices," said Adams Oshiomhole, president of the National Labour Congress and organiser of the demonstration.

NAIROBI, 14 Sep 2005 (IRIN) - Darfur risks sliding into a perpetual state of lawlessness even as the Sudanese government and the main rebel groups in the war-torn region discuss the possibility of peacefully resolving the conflict there, observers have warned.

Banditry and continuous attacks by armed groups on humanitarian workers, Arab nomads and villages in Darfur have increased significantly over the past weeks and threaten to destabilise the fragile ceasefire in the volatile western Sudanese region.

"The month of September, so far, has not been a good month. There has been quite an increase in both the number and the scale of attacks," Radhia Achouri, spokeswoman for the UN Mission in Sudan (UNMIS), said on Tuesday.

JOHANNESBURG, 14 Sep 2005 (IRIN) - A court ruling that the state-controlled Zimbabwe Allied Banking Group (ZABG), an amalgamation of three failed commercial banks, acquired its assets illegally could lead to chaos in the country's financial sector, an economist told IRIN.

Last year the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) closed down the Trust, Royal and Barbican banks, and subsequently amalgamated them into the ZAGB under stewardship of the RBZ. The move was aimed at stabilising the financial sector after the collapse of several commercial banks as a result of mismanagement and the contracting economy.

This week lawyers acting for private shareholders of the failed commercial banks won a court ruling against the amalgamation, and analysts warned that the ZABG might collapse, sparking further chaos in the country's already fragile financial sector.