Jan 21 (Reuters) - Democratic Republic of Congo's government and warring rebel and militia factions will sign a deal on Tuesday to end fighting in the country's conflict-torn east, government officials and diplomats said on Monday. Over the past year, fighting in eastern North Kivu province has intensified between government forces and fighters loyal to renegade Tutsi General Laurent Nkunda. Nkunda's guerrillas have also clashed with local Mai Mai militia and Rwandan Hutu rebels. Here are some details about the fighting in the east. * ORIGINS OF THE CONFLICT: -- The roots of Nkunda's rebellion in North Kivu lie in unhealed ethnic and political tensions that make the racially mixed eastern Congo a regional tinderbox. -- The presence in east Congo of both Tutsi and Hutu rebels there stemmed from Rwanda's 1994 genocide, in which 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed in 100 days by the Hutu-led government and ethnic militias. -- It led to subsequent invasions by Rwandan forces that helped ignite a wider war in Congo from 1998 to 2003. -- Nkunda led a revolt in 2004 with around 4,000 soldiers and briefly captured Bukavu, the capital of South Kivu. He is the subject of an international arrest warrant for war crimes committed during the brief occupation. -- Following 2006 elections aimed at drawing a line under the 1998-2003 war in which 4 million people were killed, Congolese President Joseph Kabila promised to bring peace to Congo's east. -- In November 2006, United Nations Mission in Congo (MONUC) helicopters and armoured vehicles killed hundreds of Nkunda's fighters. -- Under a January 2007 peace deal, Nkunda's fighters joined special mixed army brigades, but walked out again in August. -- Nkunda said he was fighting to protect his Tutsi people in eastern Congo against attacks by the rebel Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) which control parts of North Kivu and which he said was backed by Kabila's government. -- The FDLR includes former Rwandan soldiers and members of Hutu militias, or Interahamwe, which took part in the Rwandan genocide. * CEASEFIRES: -- U.N. mediators announced a limited ceasefire on Sept. 6, 2007 after nearly two weeks of fighting in the volatile province as thousands of Tutsi fighters loyal to Nkunda appeared to have turned the tide on government forces, and were pressing ahead towards the provincial capital Goma. -- Nkunda, who had turned parts of North Kivu province into his personal fiefdom, later said he was abandoning the ceasefire because of attacks by the government, which in turn accused him of pushing the country towards war. -- Fresh talks opened earlier this month at a peace conference in Goma, grouping government officials, local leaders and the warring factions. They have sought solutions to the conflict that has displaced more than 400,000 people in North Kivu in the past year. (Writing by David Cutler, London Editorial Reference Unit)
A woman covers her face to protect from teargas during ethnic violence in Nairobi January 2, 2008. President Mwai Kibaki's government accused rival Raila Odinga's party of unleashing "genocide" in Kenya ...
