Goma, Rwanda News

Arriving today in restive eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo , United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged all the leaders of Africa's Great Lakes region to throw their support behind a recently-signed peace accord which aims to ensure security, as well as development, for the long-troubled country.

The town of Kanyaruchinya from the last United Nations peacekeeper outpost along the road leading north, into M23 rebel territory, from Goma in eastern Congo.

The AU is celebrating 50 years of existence this year. Set up in 1963 in the Ethiopian capital, the body had 32 initial signatory governments, with 21 more nations joining over the years.

KINSHASA, Democratic Republic of the Congo, May 22 - The UN refugee agency said on Wednesday it was concerned about the latest outbreak of heavy fighting in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo and urged all parties to ensure the safety of civilians.

M23 rebels fired two rockets into the eastern Congo city of Goma, killing one person and wounding four, officials said, in an apparent spillover from three days of fighting raging north of the city.

The body of a Congolese journalist was found on the bank of the Ngezi River near the provincial capital of Bunia in eastern Congo, the city's mayor said Saturday.

The World Bank on Wednesday announced $1 billion in development funding for Africa's Great Lakes region, where renewed fighting this week between the government and rebels in eastern Congo has raised fears once again of an escalation in conflict.

Witnessing life in Goma, a city that's been invaded, ransacked, inundated with refugees, and flattened by a volcano -- all in the last 17 years.

Tea party activists have rallied outside the federal building in Cincinnati waving flags and signs, singing patriotic songs and chanting "Stop the IRS!" The government will accept an Army private's guilty plea to a lesser version of one of the 22 counts he faces for sending more than 700,000 classified U.S. documents to the anti-secrecy website ... (more)

A new wave of fierce fighting has broken out in Democratic Republic of Congo after the army, Forces Armee de la Republic Democratique du Congo , carried out an early Monday morning attack on an M23 Movement base in the Eastern part of the country, sparking off a fresh war with the rebels.

A military commander in eastern Congo says rebels attacked an army position north of Goma, a major provincial capital in the country's troubled east.

M23 camp commandant Major Innocent Madido inspects new recruits during a training session at the Rumangabo military camp in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, May 16, 2013.

Rwandan President Paul Kagame says the UN peacekeeping force in the Democratic Republic of Congo has "in some cases" made the situation worse.

The body of a Congolese journalist was found on the bank of the Ngezi River near the provincial capital of Bunia in eastern Congo, the city's mayor said Saturday.

Violent clashes between rebels and government troops in the restive eastern Democratic Republic of Congo have left at least 21 people dead, a military official said on Thursday.

File photo: Rebel General Ntaganda Bosco walks escorted by comrades on January 11, 2009 at his mountain base in Kabati, 40km north west of the provincial capital Goma.

The imminent deployment of a UN-backed 3,000-strong international force mandated to "neutralize and disarm" all armed groups in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo marks a switch to a more belligerent international stance towards rebel militia, but has met with scepticism in some quarters.

DRC troops raped at least 97 women and 33 girls, some as young as 6, in the country's volatile east after they fled from advancing M23 rebels in late November, a UN report says.

In this Aug. 5, 2012 file photo, an M23 rebel walks the streets of the North Kivu town of Rubare, near Rutshuru, 75 km north of Goma, Congo.

Democratic Republic of Congo troops went on a rape rampage, attacking at least 135 women and girls as they retreated from a rebel advance in 2012, according to a UN report released on Wednesday.