Functionaries and employees of the public sector have begun an "unlimited" strike in Kinshasa, capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The army of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) said it arrested 48 dissident soldiers, including 11 officers, on Tuesday in the east of the country near its borders with Rwanda and Burundi as they were returning from exile.

Reports that troops are defecting in large numbers to join a dissident former general fermenting a rebellion in the northeast of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) were refuted by an army spokesman in Kinshasa as well as by a letter purportedly written by the ex-general, Laurent Nkunda.

Local health authorities and UNICEF launched a drive on Monday to vaccinate 10 million children against polio in six provinces of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) bordering Angola, Health Minister Emile Bongeli said.

President Olusegun Obasanjo's government ordered the return of 120 Nigerian police officers serving in the United Nations peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo after some of them were accused of sexual abuses, police officials said on Monday.

The UN refugee agency, UNHCR, will begin facilitating the repatriation of approximately 150,000 refugees from Tanzania to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) on October 15, according to a statement it issued on Friday from Kinshasa.

An Antonov plane of the private Air Kasai' airline of the Democratic Republic of Congo crashed last night around 50km north of Brazzaville due to still unknown causes, killing 14 people, including 4 crewmembers.

After 30 September the army of the Democratic Republic of Congo will begin using force to expel the rebel movements present in the east of the nation, stated Kasongo Kudura, spokesman for Congolese President Joseph Kabila.

Laurent Nkunda, a dissident army general from eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is in the process of recruiting a rebel force in the territory of Masisi, less than 100 km north of Goma, the provincial capital of North Kivu, according to the army commander in the region, Gabriel Amisi.

The army of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) will on 30 September begin using force to expell all foreign rebel fighters in the country, a spokesman for President Joseph Kabila said on Thursday.