Despite relief aid having reached some 6,000 war-displaced people in the northeastern district of Ituri in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), humanitarian officials are worried that tentative calm in the area could deteriorate.

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.

Incidents of rape have risen sharply along the Kanyabayonga-Kayna road in the Democratic Republic of Congo's North Kivu Province, where fighting between the army and renegade soldiers has displaced at least 70,000 people, according to humanitarian workers.

At least 55,000 people have been displaced in North and South Kivu provinces of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) as a result of fighting between the army and armed groups, according to humanitarian agencies.

At least 37,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) are without humanitarian relief because of continued attacks by military insurgents in North Kivu Province in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), officials said.

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.

Some 44 child combatants formerly allied to the Mayi-Mayi militia have left Dubie, in the Democratic Republic of Congo's Katanga Province, for the provincial capital, Lubumbashi, where they are to undergo psychological counselling and vocational training, officials said.

The Security Council today called on the Government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) to take immediate steps to bring to justice those responsible for Monday?s attack on United Nations peacekeepers, which left eight of them dead and five wounded.

The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) military?s efforts to flush militias from the area south of Lake Albert in Ituri district has resulted in serious human rights violations, including the summary execution of six fishermen, rapes, imprisoning children and forcing villagers to transport stolen goods, the United Nations peacekeeping mission (MONUC) said today.

An armed, unidentified group killed eight peacekeepers from Guatemala and injured five others on Monday, during an ambush in Garamba National Park, in the northeast of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) near the borders of Sudan and Uganda, according to the United Nations Mission in the DRC (MONUC).