The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has completed a preliminary distribution of plastic sheeting and blankets to 600 displaced families in the town of Minembwe, most of whom had fled nearby villages almost completely destroyed during recent clashes in the Haut Plateaux region of South Kivu Province in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

The city of Bunia in northeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) was reported to be calm but tense on Monday following several days of intense fighting among ethnic groups, rebel militias and the Ugandan People's Defence Forces (UPDF).

The UN World Food Programme regional director for Central Africa, Holdbrook Arthur, has said that US $14,212 million is needed to help some 1.2 million internally displaced people (IDPs) and refugees in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). This amount equals 38 percent of the annual agency's budget for the country.

At least 350 people fleeing fighting between Mayi-Mayi militias and troops of the Rwandan-backed Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie (RCD-Goma) rebel movement arrived in Kindu from the village of Kailo, some 50 km to the north, in east-central Democratic Republic of the Congo, UN spokesman Hamadoun Toure said last Thursday.

A large plume of ash over Mount Nyimuragira, which erupted last Thursday, poses no immediate danger to man, but may hurt animals in the Masisi area, west of the volcano, Dario Tedesco, the resident volcanologist of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, said on Sunday.