Gunmen killed five Rwandan soldiers in a series of attacks on the international peacekeeping force in Darfur, a spokesman for the mission said, marking a swift upsurge in violence in the western Sudanese region.

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.

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.