Another group of Irish soldiers is due to arrive in Chad today as part of an EU mission to protect refugees in the central African nation.

CHAD’S president issued a “solemn call” yesterday for a planned European peacekeeping force to quickly deploy to Chad to ease pressure on his forces after days of fighting left hundreds dead in the Central African country.

Congo has failed to stop the use of child soldiers in its army – adding forces from former warlords into the regular corps without weeding out underage fighters, an international human rights group said today.

Congo’s long-delayed elections have been pushed back again, by at least a week beyond the scheduled June 18 date, an electoral commission spokeswoman said today.

ZIMBABWE yesterday accused Britain's SAS and the CIA of assisting alleged mercenaries who are under arrest and facing the death sentence in Harare.

Some 65 million girls worldwide are kept out of school, increasing the risks that they will suffer from extreme poverty, die in childbirth or from Aids and pass those dangers from generation to generation, the UN children’s fund said today.

Irish troops have moved a step closer to deployment in the Democratic Republic of Congo as part of an international peacekeeping force.

Hiding in the bushes, Amuzati Nzoli watched as rebel soldiers turned from killers into cannibals and ate his six-year-old nephew.

A ship at the centre of a frantic search in Africa’s Gulf of Guinea was involved in child trafficking, officials confirmed today.