Two explosions from heavy weapons echoed from the eastern shore of Lake Upemba across the glassy waters to a tiny island formed from dead reeds. Displaced families were huddled there, under a makeshift shelter that was slowly sinking into the sludge.

The Supreme Court of the Democratic Republic of Congo has confirmed the results of a constitutional referendum held on 18 December 2005, in which 84.3 percent of the votes cast were in favour of the draft constitution, the court's president, Lwamba Bindu, said.

An enormous humanitarian crisis is emerging in the Democratic Republic of Congo?s Katanga Province, with tens of thousands of people being displaced, but so far the government and the international community are doing little.

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 lower house of parliament in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the National Assembly, passed on Tuesday a law granting amnesty to people who have been blamed for acts of war as well as political offences.

Members of parliament from Congolese President Joseph Kabila's party walked out of the National Assembly, the lower chamber of Parliament, on Monday, blocking a vote on amnesty that, if passed, would have benefited those behind the death of Laurent-Desire Kabila, former president and father of the current leader.

The government of Kinshasa has categorically denied that the historic leader of the LRA, Joseph Kony is in the country as the Kampala daily 'New Vision' reported during the weekend.

Members of the UN Security Council are due to begin on Saturday a 10-day visit to Africa's Great Lakes region, that will take them to Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda.

British Development Secretary Hilary Benn has urged the Congolese government to pay its soldiers in order to ensure security during the country's electoral process.

A court in the Democratic Republic of Congo sentenced eight presidential guardsmen to life imprisonment on Tuesday for the murder of an official of the national aviation agency.