The Council of the European Union announced on Thursday that it had approved "the concept" of EU troops supporting MONUC, the UN Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) during the presidential and legislative elections process this year.

Humanitarian actors in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) must increase efforts to resolve "critical" food shortages and lack of protection for at least 150,000 war-displaced people in Katanga Province, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has said.

Describing the Democratic Republic of Congo as being at a ?critical stage? ahead of landmark 18 June elections, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan today met officials in the east of the country, saying that he felt Congolese were excited at the prospect of electing their own leaders and ending the long, bloody civil conflict.

United Nations relief officials are calling for stepped-up humanitarian and peacekeeping measures to confront hunger and ?horrific atrocities? in Katanga in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), where fighting between the army and Mai Mai rebels has driven over 150,000 people from their homes in the last six months.

United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan arrived in Kinshasa, capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), on Tuesday for a three-day visit, on the fourth and final leg of his African tour.

A Congolese military tribunal has condemned a leader of a former armed group, called Mudundu 40, to five years imprisonment for crimes including the illegal detention of children, the UN Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (MONUC) said on Monday.

Elections in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) are a near certainty, despite the obstacles that threaten a smooth transition to democracy. What is largely uncertain, however, is how stable the country will be in the aftermath of the polls.

During a nine-day working visit to the Democratic Republic of Congo which began on 6 March, Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Jean-Marie Guéhenno, spoke to IRIN in Kinshasa about security concerns for a peaceful run of a general election on 18 June. Following are excerpts of that interview on 9 March.

Some 1,000 people have arrived in the southern suburbs of Bunia, the main town of Ituru District, fleeing fighting approximately 50 km farther south, according to local officials.

Hundreds of civilians have been displaced by fighting between United Nations-supported government troops and militiamen in the northeastern province of Orientale in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), according to the head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Bunia, Ituri District.