Militiamen and renegade soldiers have brutally raped and beaten tens of thousands of women and young girls in eastern Congo, and nearly all the crimes have gone unpunished by the country’s broken judicial system, an international human rights group said today.

WOMEN and children, some as young as eight, are fighting with militia forces that have attacked villages in eastern Congo and killed dozens while forcing more than 70,000 people to flee their homes, a UN spokesman has claimed.

DOZENS of ministers in Congo’s new power-sharing government were sworn in yesterday in a move that is hoped will end a war that has killed more than three million people in five years.

Dozens of ministers in Congo’s new power-sharing government were being sworn in today in a move that is hoped will end a war that has killed more than three million people in five years.

More than 10,000 terrified civilians were sheltering at a United Nations compound in north-east Congo today as a fierce battle raged around them.