DRC: UN to help government disarm dissidents by force

United Nations peacekeepers will help the Democratic Republic of Congo's (DRC) army disarm eastern dissident groups by force in violence-plagued North Kivu province, UN and Congolese commanders said. Army soldiers and fighters loyal to renegade Tutsi general Laurent Nkunda clashed again on Thursday a few kilometres from Rutshuru, where the dissidents attacked an army base a day earlier and forced thousands of civilians to flee.