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[29 December 2008] - A series of attacks carried by Ugandan Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) rebels between 25 and 27 December resulted in the death of at least 189 people in the northeast of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and the abduction of at least 20 children reports the United Nations Organisation Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUC). Meanwhile, a second round of UN-mediated talks between the Congolese Government and the rebel group ‘Congrès pour la defense du people’ (CNDP) concluded on 21 December with no solution in sight for an end to the widespread violence that has displaced some 250,000 people in Eastern Congo since the resumption of hostilities on 28 August. In a joint statement released yesterday, the United Nations and African Union mediators indicated that “CNDP refused to sign a joint declaration of hostilities with the government of the DRC….Furthermore, the CNDP has declined to recommit itself to its own existing unilateral cease-fire.” The peace talks, led by former Nigerian President Olusegun Obansanjo and former Tanzanian President Benjamin Mkapa, are scheduled to resume on 7 January. Today, the UN Security Council decided unanimously to extend the deployment of the United Nations Organisation Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUC) until 31 December 2009 with a force of up to 19,815 military personnel, 760 military observers, 391 police personnel and 1,050 personnel of formed police units. This follows an earlier decision by the Security Council to strengthen the Mission with 3,000 additional peacekeepers. The Security Council also requested MONUC to attach the highest priority to addressing the crisis in the Kivus, in particular the protection of civilians, and to concentrate its action progressively during the coming year in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Another priority for MONUC will be to coordinate operations with the Armed Forces of the DRC (known as the ‘Forces Nationales de la République démocratique du Congo’ or FARDC) integrated brigades with a view to disarm the recalcitrant local and foreign armed groups and to prevent the provision of support to illegal armed groups, including support derived from illicit economic activities. In an other resolution adopted today, the Security Council, condemning the continuing illicit traffic of weapons in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, decided to extend the arms embargo there and its related sanctions regime, with some modifications, until 30 November 2009. It also extended the mandate of the Group of Experts it had established to monitor the sanctions until the same date. Also on 22 December, the Security Council, in a statement read by this month’s President, Nevin Jurica (Croatia), strongly condemned the recent attacks by the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Southern Sudan, and demanded that LRA cease its recruitment and use of children and release immediately all women, children and other non-combatants. Meanwhile, attacks on aid workers passed the threshold of 100 this year, according to an OCHA press release. Soldiers from the Armed Forces of the DRC (FARDC) and the rebel National Congress for the Defense of the People (CNDP) and other unidentified armed men have all been implicated in the attacks. Also on 19 December, Security Council sanction committee concerning DRC added 13 individuals and five entities to its list subject to travel ban and assets freeze. Further information