War crimes prosecutors will lay out their evidence this week against former Congolese vice president Jean-Pierre Bemba, accused of murder, torture and hundreds of cases of rape when his militia intervened in a bloody power struggle in neighbouring Central Africa Republic.

About 150,000 people have had to flee their homes in north-west Central African Republic because of fighting in the region, a UN aid group said today.

French fighter jets bombed two rebel-held towns in the Central African Republic today, forcing rebels to pull troops out of one of them after fighting with government forces, officials said.