A decade of sporadic civil war between the Republic of Congo's government and rebel factions ended in 2003, but in the absence of a political solution to the conflict, lawlessness, displacement and a breakdown of healthcare still plague the tiny central African country, particularly in the southern Pool region.

During the decade of war, in which there were four separate conflicts, 12,000 people were killed, more than 27,000 women were raped and 860,000 people were displaced, according to the United Nations.

Many of the uprooted have found new homes in the slums that surround the capital, Brazzaville. No precise figures exist but the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC) estimates that 7,800 people may still be displaced within the country.

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) says about 24,400 refugees remain abroad, many in neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo. It also hosts 63,000 refugees, most of them from DR Congo.

The United Nations said in January 2005 there was a "neglected humanitarian crisis" in Pool - the region surrounding Brazzaville - where it described the health situation as "catastrophic".

The Republic of Congo, also known as Congo-Brazzaville, gained independence from France in 1960, and by 1968 was a single-party Marxist state led by a president installed by a military coup, Marien Ngouabi.

Ngouabi was assassinated for reasons that are still not well understood, and after brief rule by a replacement, the party installed the vice president, Denis Sassou-Nguesso, as president in 1979.

Sassou-Nguesso gradually moderated the government's Marxist policies and held the country's first multi-party elections in 1992 - which he lost to Pascal Lissouba, a former prime minister.

The elections ushered in a feeling of instability that revolved around the struggle between rival factions for control of Brazzaville - and thus control of Congo's considerable offshore oil wealth. Lissouba dissolved parliament in the same year he was elected and held new elections. Disputes over the results led to violent conflict.

Three main groups were involved in the conflict, each of which had assembled its own militia. Lissouba's "Cocoyes" had their stronghold in the south. Bernard Kolelas, a former prime minister, gathered his "Ninja" militia from the Pool region and Brazzaville. Meanwhile Sassou-Nguesso's "Cobras" were from the north.

The violence of 1993 was resolved when all the parties decided to accept a verdict on the election by an international board of arbiters.

Tensions mounted again in 1997 as presidential elections approached. When Lissouba's government forces surrounded Sassou-Nguesso's compound in Brazzaville with armoured vehicles, he ordered his militia to resist, and conflict began.

After four months of fighting that destroyed much of the capital, Angolan troops helped Sassou-Nguesso seize power from Lissouba, and he was declared president again.

Despite efforts at reconciliation, conflict erupted again in 1998 between government forces and the two opposition militias. Hundreds of thousands of people were displaced and there was massive destruction in southern Brazzaville and in the Pool, Bouenza and Niari regions.

By 1999, Sassou-Nguesso's government prevailed in the conflict and signed a peace agreement with some rebel groups. Lissouba's Cocoyes were successfully demobilised and reintegrated. Lissouba himself, along with Kolelas, was exiled for refusing to agree to peace negotiations, and then convicted of war crimes in absentia.

In 1999, the government's security forces were also accused of human rights abuses. Most famous were the "disappearances" of refugees returning across the river from neighbouring Democratic Republic of the Congo.

On landing in Congo, they were killed in an episode known as the "beach massacres". Human rights groups are still trying to bring the perpetrators to justice.

The Ninjas refused to take part in Sassou-Nguesso's 1999 demobilisation. Talks broke down and after Sassou-Nguesso was elected in multiparty elections in 2002, the Ninjas took up arms again.

The fighting resulted in further massive destruction in the Ninjas' Pool stronghold and some destruction in Brazzaville. The Pool region emptied as about 100,000, mainly Lari people, fled the fighting. It ended with a renewed peace agreement in March 2003, which has held.

But the Ninjas refuse to give up their arms without both a political agreement and a government undertaking to integrate them into civilian life. In 2004, the government rejected these demands.

Analysts say it is not in the government's interests for Pool to become a healthy, vigorous region because its people would be liable to rise up again against Sassou-Nguesso, whose power base is traditionally from the north.

The Ninjas are no longer a tight militia, but appear to have descended into banditry as a way of life, according to analysts. It is unclear to what extent Ntoumi still has control over them.

Because of this, the peace in Pool is a "peace without peace", as one government official has described it. Pool was formerly the lush breadbasket of the south but it has been devastated over the years by bombing, widespread destruction of houses and public buildings, massive organised looting and human rights violations.

The social and economic structures of its Lari people have been destroyed and many of the population are traumatised by war and rape. People are without the most basic of facilities. Entire villages have been swept away by the war.

"There are no houses, no roads, no viable economy," Arild Birkenes of the IDMC told AlertNet. "Few of the IDPs in Brazzaville wish to return to their home areas."

Lawlessness remains rife and arms are widely available. Rebels roam the area uncontrolled, living off the proceeds of banditry. These dangers severely inhibit the activities of local people.

The security situation has been unpredictable for international aid agencies. As recently as late 2005, MSF-Holland and the International Committee of the Red Cross, two of the few international organisations that work there, withdrew from some of their operations after security incidents.

Despite Congo's oil wealth, the government has given Pool no budget, meaning it cannot begin its own regeneration, explains Michel Roy, director of international advocacy for Secours Catholique (Caritas-France). Together with partner agencies Caritas Congo and Catholic Relief Services (CRS), Caritas-France carried out a detailed study of the humanitarian situation in Congo in 2004.

Because of these issues, what should be a recovery situation remains more akin to a conflict situation, says Roy. "The humanitarian situation is quite dramatic. Nothing is moving. Unless there is big international pressure it will stay that way."

The numbers of people uprooted and returnees are extremely difficult to estimate. There were camps in Brazzaville for the internally displaced but the government closed them in 2004.

The Caritas/CRS survey found that the 2002-2003 conflict displaced 99 percent of households. Two-fifths were still waiting for at least one family member to return.

Some IDPs are staying with host families. Many live in slums on the outskirts of the capital where they make a living in the informal economy and may be better off than if they returned to the countryside.

The impact of the violence on children has also been substantial. In March 2006, the government launched a one-month pilot project aimed at helping 115 former child combatants return to civilian life - the first of its kind.

Christian Mounzeo, president of the Council for Peace and Human Rights (RPHD), a local human rights group, told IRIN News that the number of former child soldiers in the country is unknown. He said many were still walking around with guns.

A 2003 study backed by the United Nations Children's Fund gave a figure of around 5,000, most of whom were located in former conflict zones, including Pool.

Efforts to disarm and reintegrate ex-combatants, including children, still have some way to go. A final national programme was approved by donors early in 2006, but has yet to be implemented.

There are some signs that the stand-off between the Ninjas and the government is crumbling.

Kolelas is back in the country. He returned for the funeral of his wife in October 2005 and was granted amnesty by parliament a few months later.

Meanwhile, the head of his Ninja militia, Pastor Ntoumi, announced in 2005 that his fighters were going to disarm and his group would become a legitimate political party. He repeated the announcement in January 2007.

In January 2006, just as Sassou-Nguesso, was elected president of the African Union, the World Bank signed an agreement with the government for a $17-million plan to disarm, demobilise and reintegrate more than 30,000 former combatants in eight of the country's 11 regions, including Pool.

And the European Union and the UN Development Programme plan a $2 million project to retrieve 15,000 weapons thought to lurk in the region.

In March 2006, the government announced it had awarded a contract to rebuild 72 kilometres of road from Brazzaville to Kinkala, the main town in the Pool region. The $43 million construction project is being financed by the European Union, and is expected to provide a boost to the local economy.

In September 2006 the International Committee for the Red Cross (ICRC) said that the humanitarian situation was finally normalising in the Pool region, with banditry much less of a problem than it was in 2002 and 2003.

But the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs disagreed, though it said that there had been some improvement.