At least 34 people have died from cholera in areas along Lake Kivu in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo, a senior health official in the affected province said on Thursday. Another 2,152 people have been infected in the cholera outbreak, which began in early January, Dr Guyslain Bisimwa, medical inspector for South Kivu Province, told IRIN.

Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has suspended aid activities in one of the most war-torn areas of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)'s North Kivu Province after people in army uniform attacked the charity's facility late Tuesday.

Scores of people are believed to have drowned after a cabin boat sank in the Kasai River on Monday near the town of Tshikapa in Kasai Oriental Province of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

South African President Thabo Mbeki has held talks with key political leaders of the Democratic Republic of Congo in a bid to lessen tension within its government and save the democratic transitional process from collapse.

Since an announcement on Friday that the electoral commission of the Democratic Republic of Congo may not be able to hold elections by 30 June as scheduled, various political groups and officials involved in the transition have been accusing each other of causing the delay.

A comment by the head of the election commission on the possible delay of national elections sparked violent demonstrations on Monday in Kinshasa, capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

Combatants are committing human rights violations near the town of Kanyabayonga in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) despite an uneasy calm following the creation of a UN buffer zone, a UN official said on Thursday.

Humanitarian workers have ventured into jungles in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) since Thursday to deliver food and non-food relief aid to thousands of war-displaced people in North Kivu Province, a UN official told IRIN on Tuesday.

The first of thousands of displaced people in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)'s Equateur province returned home as part of a pilot project being undertaken jointly by the government and the UN.

Few of the estimated 100,000 people displaced by fighting earlier this month in the province of North Kivu, east of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), have received humanitarian aid.