Gunmen also armed with machetes have attacked Congo’s presidential residence, and at least nine people were killed during nearly an hour of gunfire, a witness said.

A draft UN report says the Rwandan army that ended the 1994 slaughter of more than 500,000 people retaliated with killings in Congo two years later that also could be classified as a genocide.

A former child soldier told a war crimes hearing today how he was snatched off the street and sent to a military camp.

The first census of critically endangered mountain gorillas carried out by Congo government authorities since rebels seized the area shows that 10 babies have been born in the last 16 months, wildlife officials said.

Rangers caring for some of the world’s last surviving mountain gorillas in the middle of war-torn Congo have been allowed back into their habitat.

Rebel forces said they were pulling back from a fleeing Congo army today to allow peace talks.

Congo’s army clashed with rebels in some of the worst fighting in a week despite the rebel leader’s promise to support a ceasefire, the United Nations said today.

REBEL leader Laurent Nkunda yesterday called for ceasefire talks with the Democratic Republic of Congo government after meeting a UN peace envoy even as new clashes broke out between his fighters and the army.

The Democratic Republic of Congo’s main rebel leader today promised his support of a ceasefire and UN efforts to end the fighting.

Fears that fighting in eastern Congo will spread were raised today after it was revealed that Angolan troops joined government forces attacking rebels near the city of Goma.

A ceasefire called by Congo rebels appeared to be unravelling today.

The European Union is proposing a UN-organised summit of the nations bordering eastern Congo, and says Rwanda and Congo would attend such a meeting.

International envoys converged on eastern Congo to help end some of the worst violence in years as thousands of anxious, hungry refugees struggled to get home amid a fragile ceasefire.

A Congolese airliner trying to take off with about 80 people aboard careened off a runway, bursting into flames and killing at least 21 people in a busy market neighbourhood.

FRANCE and the Netherlands reacted swiftly on Saturday to a newly signed peace accord in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), with the latter announcing millions of euro in aid to help stabilise the troubled east.

Three mass graves have been discovered in an eastern area of the Democratic Republic of Congo in the DRC formerly controlled by a rebel warlord that has been the scene of recent clashes, the United Nations said today.

MORE than 100 people were killed in two days of heavy fighting in Congo’s capital, Kinshasa, hospital officials said yesterday, as diplomats expressed fears for the fledgling democracy.

Fighters loyal to a failed presidential candidate clashed with army forces in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s capital Kinshasa today, UN officials and witnesses said.

Demonstrators protesting alleged corruption in Congo’s local and legislative elections turned violent today, leaving more than six dead in several towns, authorities and witnesses said.

Gunshots sounded and street brawls broke out today in Kinshasa among a crowd rallying for the runner-up in Democratic Republic of Congo’s landmark presidential vote as he pursued a court challenge of his loss.

Incumbent President Joseph Kabila was declared the winner of Congo’s tense decider election, defeating his ex-rebel leader rival in the war-torn country’s first multi-party contest in more than 40 years.

The European Union plans to pull its peacekeepers out of the Democratic Republic of the Congo on schedule, despite heightened tension over the upcoming results of key elections, senior officials said today.

Fighters loyal to rival candidates in the Democratic Republic of Congo's presidential elections clashed in the capital, with bursts of gunfire and exploding mortars.

People in the Democratic Republic of Congo have finished voting in an election that marks the climax of its four-year postwar transition.

THE chief of staff to the Democratic Republic of Congo’s President Joseph Kabila has been assaulted and robbed in northwest London, outside a TV studio.

EU defence ministers today gathered in Finland to consider winding down the international peacekeeping mission in Bosnia and eventually replacing it with a mostly civilian operation in the Balkan nation.

The European Union today announced it granted an extra £11m (€16.3) to help fill gaps in funding for the elections in Congo.

FIGHTING flared for a third day yesterday between supporters of Congo’s two presidential candidates.

Heavy gunfire erupted in Kinshasa this morning around the home of Congo’s top presidential challenger, a day after fighters trapped diplomats who had to be evacuated by UN peacekeepers.

GUNFIRE broke out yesterday near the home of a leading Congolese politician, prompting the UN to send scores of peacekeepers in armoured vehicles to remove foreign diplomats trapped inside.

Results from Congo’s historic elections today show President Joseph Kabila failing to win an outright majority, and set up a second round vote pitting him against a former rebel leader, officials announced.

Congo, the massive nation at the heart of the world’s poorest continent, chooses a new president tomorrow in the first multi-party elections since independence nearly half a century ago.

Three main militia groups in a strife-torn eastern province have agreed to lay down arms and allow free passage of voters during the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s historic elections, the United Nations said today.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan travelled to Congo today to meet the president and electoral officials ahead of the war-battered nation’s first election in decades.

EU defence ministers meeting in Austria today struggled to finalise plans to send hundreds of troops to Congo, where the UN has requested peacekeeping back-up as the vast African nation prepares for elections designed to end years of civil strife.

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

Militiamen attacked an army camp in eastern Congo, killing four soldiers and kidnapping 10 in the latest violence to hit the lawless region, a United Nations spokeswoman said today.

St Augustine’s Church is a focus point for many refugees in Limerick, particularly at Christmas, reports Mid-West Correspondent Jimmy Woulfe.

Heavy weapon and tank fire echoed around the Congo capital Kinshasa today as loyalist forces fought what the government described as a short-lived coup attempt by dissidents within the presidential guard.

Government forces recaptured the strategic Congo city of Bukavu today, ending a one-week takeover by renegade troops that triggered the biggest crisis yet to the African nation’s peace process.

UN forces opened fire on angry mobs, killing two people, as massive looting protests overran Congo’s capital today in outrage at the fall of an eastern border city to rebels.

President Joseph Kabila declared a “general mobilisation” across Congo after an eastern border city fell to renegade commanders, and pledged Congo’s army would protect Africa’s third-largest nation.

CONGO President Joseph Kabila has appealed for calm and promised that security forces would protect the country’s people after armed groups attacked military installations across the capital in an apparent coup attempt.

Congo President Joseph Kabila appealed for calm today after armed groups attacked military installations across the capital in an apparent attempt to force him from power.