Dozens of unidentified fighters attacked a provincial capital in northern Democratic Republic of Congo in a battle that has so far left one UN peacekeeper dead, UN officials said.
Some 30 fighters crossed the Congo river by boat to Mbandaka, capital of Congo's northern Equateur province, attacking the governor's residence and taking control of the city's airport in a surprise assault on Congolese and UN forces, UN and national army sources said.
"There is heavy fighting going on right now, especially around the airport," Madnodje Mounoubai, spokesman for the UN mission MONUC, told Reuters by telephone.
"There is one (peacekeeper) dead, Ghanaian. He was on his way to the airport in an APC (armoured personnel carrier) that was fired on and he took a bullet."
The Mbandaka attack is thought to be separate from ongoing fighting between UN-backed forces and rebels in Congo's east, and marks an escalation in a region where tribal violence first erupted late last year over fishing rights.
More than 100 troops from Congo's national army chased the fighters, who UN sources said number at least 30, out of the town towards the airport where MONUC has aircraft stationed.
"There are many of them and they took us by surprise but we chased them and they fled to the airport," General Janvier Mayanga, operational commander for the region for the FARDC national army, told Reuters by telephone from Mbandaka.
"We have already started the counter-attack to take back the airport." UN peacekeepers stationed at the airport along with UN contractors at a fire station beside it - both about four and a half miles (7 km) from the riverside governor's residence - retreated into the surrounding bush.