The frightened people of Congo's south Kivu province hoped UN peacekeepers would rein in the marauding militias who have been murdering and looting there for the past decade. But they're still hoping.

The mountainous, lake-dotted provinces of Sud-Kivu, its French name, and neighbouring Nord-Kivu are the victims of conflicts both local and regional.

They were a key area in the DRC war, which drew in soldiers from half a dozen African countries at its height and claimed an estimated 2.5 million lives before it came to an official end last year.

Today the provinces still suffer from the exactions of Hutu rebels involved in the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, Mai-Mai tribal militias allied with the previous DRC government, and partisans of what was the main rebel movement, the Congolese Rally for Democracy.

As well as fighting each other, men from these factions rape, pillage and murder with near impunity in these provinces that lie on the eastern borders of the vast central African state.

The situation there "is still very turbulent," admitted Sharuf Sharif, the head of the UN mission in DRC (MONUC) in the town of Bukavu in Sud-Kivu. MONUC is mandated to monitor the ceasefire part of DRC's peace process agreed last year.

"There are three main challenges: the reunification of the Congolese, uniting the army, and integrating the Mai-Mai," said Sharif.

He said the issue of the Banyamulenge, ethnic Tutsis orignally from Rwanda but living in Congo for centuries, was a particularly thorny one.

The Congolese regard them as Rwandans and blame them for many of the problems that plague the region. The Banyamulenge often face official hostility and have problems having their Congolese citizenship recognised and getting identity papers.

The Interahamwe, another militia at large in the region, are widely held responsible for the 1994 genocide in neighbouring Rwanda.

"They live like beasts in the forest," they rape, kill, loot and destroy whatever they can't take with them, said Didier de Failly, a Catholic priest who has lived in the DRC for 20 years.

He put their number at around 8 000.

The Mai-Mai, which during the war was a pro-Kinshasa militia, number about 30 000, according to the UN's Sharif. He said he hoped they could soon be integrated into the new Congolese army in line with the peace deal.

Thousands of UN peacekeeping troops are now in eastern DRC. They have several times engaged local militias, using their mandate to use force if necessary to ensure the implementation of UN resolutions.

But their arrival has not ended the ordeal for the population of these troubled provinces - Sapa-AFP.