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French-led force sets Congo gun deadline By Matthew Green BUNIA, Congo (Reuters) - A French-led force sent to protect civilians in the Congolese town of Bunia has set a 72-hour deadline for gunmen to leave the town where ethnic bloodletting killed hundreds last month. The force also urged the government in Kinshasa to withdraw newly-arrived armed police reinforcements, saying they violated a peace deal. France is supplying the bulk of the troops for the international force, which began deploying on June 6 after an appeal from the United Nations to intervene in the town where gun-toting militiamen are a...

BUNIA, Congo - French troops leading an emergency force in Congo came under fire for the first time Saturday in their mission to stabilize this northeastern town ravaged by tribal turf wars

Boy Soldiers Toting AK-47s Put at Front of Congo's War Prospect of Shooting Children Haunts Peacekeepers By Emily Wax Washington Post Foreign Service Saturday, June 14, 2003; Page A01 BUNIA, Congo -- With his baggy jeans and oversized military fatigues, Eric Mabele patrolled this town with a rifle at his side and a few grenades looped around his belt. Enemy forces are scattered all around Bunia, eager to fight their way in. Fierce-looking French troops have been storming into town this week to take up peacekeeping duties. But Eric, slouching and taking a sip of beer, said he wasn't scared....

BUNIA, Congo (Reuters) - French troops sent to stop tribal fighting in the Congolese town of Bunia opened fire for the first time and made a show of force after being attacked by a group of militiamen on Saturday, witnesses said. Attackers hidden in long grass fired mortars and machineguns at a convoy of French troops driving outside Bunia, focus of clashes between rival ethnic militias that have killed hundreds in the past month. "The French are being attacked, nobody knows by whom," Major Xavier Pons told a Reuters reporter traveling with the French convoy on the southeastern fringes of...

And then the cry went up: 'Where are the French?' James Astill reports from the bullet-riddled town of Bunia in the Congo Sunday June 8, 2003 The Observer The crash of mortars and crackling gunfire ripped through central Bunia yesterday as a vicious tribal war for the town re-ignited just one day after the arrival of 100 French special force troops, deployed in advance of a joint European peacekeeping force to pacify the Democratic Republic Congo's war-ravaged north eastern capital. In a virtual re-run of the battle for Bunia last month - when 700 UN peacekeepers stood by as hundreds...

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use.James Astill reports from the bullet-riddled town of Bunia in the Congo The crash of mortars and crackling gunfire ripped through central Bunia yesterday as a vicious tribal war for the town re-ignited just one day after the arrival of 100 French special force troops, deployed in advance of a joint European peacekeeping force to pacify the Democratic Republic Congo's war-ravaged north eastern capital. In a virtual re-run of the battle for Bunia last month - when 700 UN peacekeepers stood by as hundreds of civilians were massacred, and 25,000 fled -...