DRC: UN faces disarmament test in Ituri province

The United Nations mission in Democratic Republic of Congo faces a stiff test when its first disarmament programme in the vast central African country starts in the northeastern Ituri province on Monday. An estimated 50,000 tribal militiamen are due to start laying down their weapons, but their leaders have remained non-committal and a flare-up of violence in the troubled province points to trouble ahead for the scheme.