Mick Hartley

Some good news at last from the Congo:

Democratic Republic of Congo will sign a peace deal on Monday with the M23 rebel group that laid down its arms this week after a string of military defeats, Congo's Foreign Minister Raymond Tshibanda told Reuters on Friday.

The Tutsi-led M23, the most important rebel movement in lawless eastern Congo, announced on Tuesday it would disband after a 20-month uprising that displaced some 800,000 people. A two-week U.N.-backed army offensive had dislodged M23 from its last hilltop strongholds near the Rwandan and Ugandan borders.

M23's announcement raised hope for greater stability after two decades of violence in eastern Congo partly motivated by ethnic tensions and combat over rich mineral deposits in which millions of people have died.

There's a photo gallery at The Big Picture:

[Photo: James Akena/Reuters]

"People displaced by fighting between the Congolese army and M23 rebels in Bunagana in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, make their way home after spending a night in the Ugandan town of Bunagana."