UN troops in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo launched what commanders codenamed Operation Falcon Sweep on Monday to drive all armed groups from a locale in the territories of Walungu and Kabare, close to a national park in South Kivu Province, a UN military spokesman said.

Around 890 people displaced from their homes almost seven years ago in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) arrived in Kisangani, capital of Orientale Province, on Sunday after 43 gruelling days on a boat on the Congo River that came from Equateur Province.

The red Cross in Congo says the toll of the violence from yesterday has risen to 9 dead and 26 wounded, 5 of whom remain in serius conditions.

Calm is slowly returning to Mbandaka, after a Sunday marred by violence and looting perpetrated by the new unified Congolese army.

Lawyers and experts representing the government of Rwanda began making oral arguments on Monday before the 15 judges of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague, in the first of four days of public hearings concerning armed activities in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

Nine people were killed on Sunday when about 100 soldiers went on the rampage to avenge the death of a comrade in Mbandaka, the largest town in Equateur province in the northwest of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), a UN spokesman in the country said.

A senior officer in the 8th Military Region of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Col Christophe Bindu, and four of his personal guards, have appeared before a military court in Goma, capital of North Kivu Province, following the death on Friday of at least 10 people, among them two children.

Over 250,000 people just in Kinshasa, capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo, registered to vote in the ten days following the census. In issuing the data, the United Nations Kinshasa office spokesman Stephane Dujarric specified that the rapid registration showed support and hopes of the Congolese people in the elections.

In a message addressed to the transition government of the Democratic Republic of Congo, the United Nations Security Council reiterated the urgent need to prepare to conduct peaceful elections and to exercise efficient, transparent and comprehensive control over state finances, ensuring that there is no impunity for those responsible for acts of embezzlement or corruption.

Tension is escalating in Kinshasa, capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo, where the police and soldiers are intervening to disperse the young demonstrators that took the streets this morning in protest against the extension of the transition and postponement of elections.