A rebel group believed to be backed by Rwanda advanced to within two miles of Goma, a crucial provincial capital in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, marking the first time that rebels have come this close since 2008.

UN attack helicopters targeted M23 rebels in eastern Congo after fighting resumed following a months long lull in violence, a local official said.

Rwanda is among five nations elected to the UN Security Council, amid an ongoing investigation by a UN panel of its role in neighbouring Congo’s rebellion.

The suspected leader of an extremist Hutu militia was in custody today after being arrested in eastern Congo following years on the run.

Rebels attacked a UN peacekeeping base in eastern Congo today killing three Indian soldiers and wounding seven others.

A Congolese journalist working for a UN radio station has been murdered outside his home in unstable eastern Congo, officials said.

The United Nations’ most powerful body is close to approving 3,000 more peacekeeping troops for war-torn areas of eastern Congo, diplomats said today.

THE leader of the Congo’s eastern province has denied army forces are using child soldiers, instead claiming rebels are arming youngsters.

TUCKED away in the dusty side streets of Goma the house of “mama”, as she is known, is modest with holy relics on the wall and clean covers over worn-down seats.

THE Congolese army is riddled with corruption, falling apart because of indiscipline with underpaid soldiers looting homes and marauding through villages.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called for an immediate ceasefire today to urgently help “at least 100,000 refugees” cut off by fighting in rebel-held areas in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

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.

African leaders and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon were holding a crisis meeting today aimed at ending the latest fighting in eastern Congo.

UN peacekeepers found the bodies of a dozen shot civilians yesterday in an eastern Congo village occupied by Tutsi rebels who have seized fresh territory in North Kivu province, witnesses and a UN spokesman said.

Aid agencies today warned of a humanitarian catastrophe in the Democratic Republic of Congo after fierce fighting between the government and rebel forces.

United Nations secretary general Ban Ki-moon urged Congo’s government to get control of its troops in the African nation’s conflict-wracked east and help beleaguered peacekeepers protect thousands of civilians.

Soldiers began to flee the eastern Congo provincial capital Goma today in retreat from advancing rebels.

The top United Nations envoy to Congo warned that renewed fighting in the east had heightened ethnic tensions and could lead to the renewal of a wider conflict in central Africa.

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.

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.