Renewed attacks by military insurgents in North Kivu Province, in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), have cut short an interagency mission to evaluate humanitarian needs in area, an official of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Office (OCHA) has said.

Hundreds of civilians have been displaced in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in the latest round of fighting between dissident soldiers and the army's fifth brigade, a humanitarian official has said.

Voters continued trickling into polling stations throughout the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) on Monday for the second day of voting on the country's new draft constitution.

Former rebel commanders, leaders of armed factions backed by Rwanda and Uganda for control of the resources of the Democratic Republic of Congo, but also former ?government? generals and arms traffickers: some fifteen names were included in a list disclosed yesterday of those responsible for civilians massacres and violence in DR-Congo, to face punitive measures.

The UN Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (MONUC) does not plan to capture a dissident former general of the Congolese army against whom an international arrest warrant was issued recently, an official told IRIN on Thursday.

Soldiers from the 12th brigade deserted their posts in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in the last week, the military spokesman for the UN said on Tuesday, but 580 of them have already returned to base.

The governor of Congo's South Kivu Province, Didas Kaningini, said on Monday that 48 dissident soldiers who were arrested recently as they returned from exile to the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) had escaped from a jail.

Reports that troops are defecting in large numbers to join a dissident former general fermenting a rebellion in the northeast of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) were refuted by an army spokesman in Kinshasa as well as by a letter purportedly written by the ex-general, Laurent Nkunda.

The commander of the Democratic Republic of Congo's 8th Military Region, in the eastern province of North Kivu, said on Monday some 350 troops from the 124th battalion had defected to join a dissident army general, Laurent Nkunda.

Laurent Nkunda, a dissident army general from eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is in the process of recruiting a rebel force in the territory of Masisi, less than 100 km north of Goma, the provincial capital of North Kivu, according to the army commander in the region, Gabriel Amisi.