Irish soldiers are to be sent to the strife-torn Democratic Republic of Congo, Defence Minister Willie O’Dea announced today.

EIGHT Guatemalan special forces soldiers deployed as UN peacekeepers in Eastern Congo were killed and five more were injured yesterday during an operation against Ugandan rebels, the United Nations said.

The International Criminal Court has issued its first arrest warrants, for five members of Uganda’s notoriously cruel Lord’s Resistance Army.

The UN confirmed today that Rwandan troops have crossed the border into Congo in pursuit of rebel forces and was investigating reports that villages had been set ablaze.

THE United Nations said yesterday it had found another 30 decomposing and mutilated bodies in the east Congo town of Bunia, bringing the death toll from days of fighting between tribal militias to more than 300.

THE mutilated bodies of 280 people have been discovered in the town of Bunia in eastern Congo after days of fighting between tribal militias, a United Nations official said yesterday.

Widespread fighting between rebel groups in north eastern Congo over the past month has forced more than 155,000 people to flee their homes, an aid group said today.