The alleged leader of a Congolese militia charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity for masterminding a savage attack on a village during which 200 people were murdered has been turned over to the International Criminal Court, the court announced today.

Judges at the International Criminal Court today ordered an alleged Congolese warlord to be tried on charges he recruited child soldiers and sent them into battle, making him the first suspect to stand trial at the permanent war crimes court.

The world’s first permanent international criminal court is due to formally begin work today with a landmark hearing.

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 eastern Democratic Republic of Congo have agreed to lay down their arms ahead of historic elections this weekend, the UN said yesterday.

THE Congolese army commander screamed over the radio for more ammunition as mortars pounded down and machine gun fire rattled around him.

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.

Eight UN peacekeepers have been killed and 14 others injured during an ambush on their unit in eastern Congo today.

THE International Court of Justice yesterday held Uganda responsible for the killing, torture and cruel treatment of civilians in Congo in the late 1990s and ordered reparations.

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.

UN officials defended peacekeepers who killed up to 60 militiamen in a gunbattle in Congo, saying the international troops were acting in self-defence and protecting civilians who had been terrorised for years.

UN peacekeepers killed as many as 60 militia members in a vicious gun fight in north-eastern Congo, a UN spokesman said today.

Dozens of tribal fighters have attacked a village in northeastern Congo killing up to 55 people, looting property and setting huts on fire

UNIDENTIFIED attackers fired on United Nations offices in the northeastern Congolese town of Bunia, a day after UN troops detained army and security chiefs of a tribal militia.

AT least 54 people were killed this week in renewed tribal fighting in northeast Congo, close to the town of Bunia, where an international force has been deployed to keep the peace.

THE chief prosecutor of the world’s first permanent war crimes tribunal has rejected appeals to investigate allegations of war crimes by US or coalition forces in Iraq.

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan complimented Africa on its peace efforts yesterday, but warned that the continent needed political will to achieve long-term stability.

IT IS disappointing that some commentators view the dispatch of a small, UN-backed military force to the town of Bunia as a sufficient response to the horrors currently plaguing the Ituri region of the Congo.

Armed tribal fighters have warily approached new checkpoints set up by French troops today in the war-torn town of Bunia in north-eastern Congo.

IRELAND is to offer a crack force of army rangers to the EU-led mission to the Congo at a special meeting in Paris tomorrow.

An advance party of French troops landed in lawless north-eastern Congo today to prepare the ground for an EU-led peacekeeping force.

France has introduced a resolution seeking United Nations authorisation to deploy an international force to lawless north-eastern Congo.

GOVERNMENTS including Britain and the US are using the war on terror as an excuse to trample human rights, Amnesty International claimed yesterday.

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.

CONGO rebels were yesterday accused of cannibalism with witnesses describing the mutilation and eating of the dead during more than a week of tribal fighting that killed scores and forced thousands to flee.

Congo rebels were today accused of cannibalism with terrified witnesses describing the mutilation and eating of the dead during more than a week of tribal fighting that killed scores and forced thousands to flee.

Two United Nations military observers who were missing for days in Congo’s troubled north-east have been “savagely killed,” a spokesman said today.

Fleeing civilians jammed roads out of an eastern Congo city by the thousands to escape rival ethnic militias battling for control with mortars and machetes.

More than 10,000 terrified civilians were sheltering at a United Nations compound in north-east Congo today as a fierce battle raged around them.

TWO days of clashes between rival ethnic groups in a troubled Congo region killed 120 people, a tribal leader 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.

Six people were feared dead after an aircraft en route to neighbouring Uganda crashed in rebel-held northeastern Congo in bad weather, rebel officials and the aircraft’s owners said today.