Goma, DR Congo - Standing near the Corniche border crossing between the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda, Rogatien Lubula watches several transport trucks carrying blue-helmeted soldiers rumble past in a cloud of dust.

"My country has been destroyed," the 65-year-old trader complains.

"With all of their weapons," he says, motioning towards the United Nations vehicles, "they could have stopped the war long ago if they weren't more interested in sitting around eating peanuts and making money."

Nairobi/Goma  - A rebel group that has been battling government forces in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo said Tuesday it would withdraw from two fronts to show its commitment to peace.

Rebel Tutsi general Laurent Nkunda's National Congress for the Defence of the People (CNDP) has routed the Congolese army and seized control of territory in the eastern North Kivu province in recent weeks.

The CNDP said in a statement on its website it had decided to "immediately and unilaterally" withdraw its troops a distance of 40 kilometres on the Kanyabayonga-Nyanzale and Kabasha-Kiwanja fronts in North Kivu.

Nairobi/Goma - Congolese President Joseph Kabila has sacked his military chief of staff in the wake of rebel gains in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

State television late Monday night said that General Didier Etumba Longomba, the navy chief, would take over from General Dieudonne Kayembe.

Rebel Tutsi general Laurent Nkunda's National Congress for the Defence of the People (CNDP) has routed the Congolese army in recent weeks and seized control of territory in the eastern North Kivu province.

Nairobi/Goma - The Congolese army and Tutsi rebels have been involved in some of the worst clashes for a week despite rebel leader Laurent Nkunda telling a United Nations envoy that he supports peace in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, the UN said Monday.

"Yesterday we had a lot of clashes in Riwindi (125 kilometres north of Goma, the capital of North Kivu province) and its outskirts," Lieutenant Colonel Jean-Paul Dietrich, military spokesman for the UN peacekeeping mission in DR Congo, told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

Nairobi /Goma - Troops from Angola and Zimbabwe are supporting the Congolese army in its battle against rebel forces in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo, reports said Wednesday. The news raised fears of the conflict widening.

Eyewitnesses told the BBC that they had seen what they believed to be Angolan and Zimbabwean soldiers dressed in the uniform of the Congolese army.

Nairobi/Goma - Emergency aid is not reaching many of the tens of thousands of civilians displaced by fighting between rebels and government troops in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) warned Wednesday.

The World Food Programme (WFP) has provided food to the displaced living in refugee camps around Goma, the capital of North Kivu province, but the poor security situation has prevented the delivery of aid to those stranded behind rebel lines.