Armed men killed a United Nations observer and injured a second near the eastern Congolese town of Bukavu, which was calm on Saturday after several days of heavy fighting between army factions.
"Our military observers were attacked by a group of armed men in which one was killed on the spot," said Sebastien Lapierre, a spokesman for the UN mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo, known as MONUC.
Two observers, one injured, escaped after the attack some 40 km (25 miles) north of Bukavu late on Friday while the third UN observer returned safely from hiding on Saturday.
Lapierre declined to give the dead observer's nationality.
Rival army factions battled in the streets of Bukavu with assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenade launchers for nearly three days this week, leaving at least seven civilians and five soldiers dead, according to UN and army officials.
Thousands of refugees fled to nearby Rwanda after the fighting erupted late on Wednesday when Congolese soldiers tried to disarm the bodyguards of a renegade former rebel commander, who is now part of a single, national army.
Residents edged out onto the streets on Saturday but most stores remained shut. The bodies of three dead fighters still lay on the ground, which was strewn with shattered glass from widespread looting.
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