Almost 3,000 government employees have been sacked - or forcibly retired - in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

President Joseph Kabila fired more than 100 people accused of corruption from the ministry of finance and other government departments.

Hundreds of others - most of them managers - were forced to retire after being found to be working beyond pensionable age.

Budget Minister Michel Lokola said it was part of a fight against corruption.

"The dismissal concerns any agent who has been involved in the bad management of public finances," he told AFP.

The government said some 1,500 officials had been promoted at the beginning of January to replace those dismissed.

Mr Kabila also fired hundreds of civil servants in mid-2009.