At a ceremony held on Monday to present the Democratic Republic of Congo's newly adopted draft constitution, President Joseph Kabila urged all Congolese to rally in support of democracy, saying that following the adoption, the country's electoral process was irreversible.

A UN peacekeeper was shot dead and six others were wounded on Thursday when an armed group ambushed a convoy carrying 40 UN Bangladeshi troops in the troubled northeastern district of Ituri in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), a spokeswoman for the UN mission there, known as MONUC, said.

An attempt to secede from the Democratic Republic of Congo was foiled recently in the southeastern province of Katanga, the deputy government spokesman, Simon Tshitenge, told IRIN on Friday.

A Belgian company has been picked to organise the identification and registration of voters for the Democratic Republic of Congo's first post-transition elections, the chairman of the Independent Electoral Commission, Apollinaire Malumalu, announced on Thursday.

The leader of thousands of Rwandan Hutu militiamen based in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Ignace Murwanashyaka, arrived in the eastern town of Bukavu on Wednesday, a month and half after he signed a declaration vowing to end the armed struggle against the government of Rwanda.

Ongoing insecurity is the cause of deteriorating levels of nutrition among people in the south-central province of Kasai Oriental in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the UN Mission there known as MONUC, reported on Monday.

At least 30 civilians and military personnel suspected of plotting the secession of Katanga Province from the Democratic Republic of Congo have been arrested, Deputy Provincial Governor Chikez Diemu said on Monday.

South Africa has, for the first time, deployed a company of reservists outside the country to replace members of the regular force on a peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

A cargo aircraft crashed in northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) on Wednesday killing 10 people on board. There was one survivor, a UN official told IRIN.

New refugees have been fleeing the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to Rwanda since April causing crowding in Rwandan border centres, according the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) which has begun transferring the existing refugees to a camp farther inland.