A convoy of the Independent Electoral Commission (CEI) was attacked yesterday by a group of militias in the Mahagi area, in the north-eastern district of Ituri, a few hours from the constitutional referendum. MISNA learned the news today from Radio Okapi of the United Nations Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (MONUC).

While calm returns to Kinshasa after demonstrations against Sunday?s referendum yesterday morning, the Congolese people have turned their attention to Bukavu, capital of South Kivu, as for the first time president Josep Kabila visited the area.

Almost 25 million voters in the DRC could prepare the way for the country's first presidential and parliamentary elections if they accept the draft constitution that is to be presented to them on Sunday in a referendum, senior diplomats said in Kinshasa.

The World Bank has approved a US $125-million grant to help the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) rebuild its agricultural production and enhance food security, the bank said on Thursday.

Congo's President Joseph Kabila said Thursday that his country's voters must accept a proposed post-war constitution later this month if elections are to be held in 2006.

The search for possible victims of an earthquake near the lakeside town of Kalemie in eastern Congo (DRC) continued along the shores of Lake Tanganyika on Tuesday, humanitarian and provincial authorities in Goma, capital of North Kivu Province, said.

The European Union (EU) commissioner for development and humanitarian aid, Louis Michel, has called for the revival of the Economic Community of the Great Lakes Countries of Africa(the Communauté Economique des Pays des Grands Lacs, or CEPGL), that collapsed in 1998 as a result of war in the region.

The French charity, Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) says that the army in northern Katanga Province of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has blocked relief workers from entering the area since beginning a military campaign against local militias there in mid-November.

Tens of thousands of refugees in the Great Lakes region have started returning home, but without adequate support they could reignite conflicts and end up joining the millions of people displaced within their own countries, a senior UN official said on Tuesday.

A military delegation from the African Union (AU) has arrived in North Kivu in the troubled eastern region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) to assess the possible deployment of 7,000 troops to disarm foreign armed groups who have been attacking civilians, the UN Mission in DRC (MONUC) said.