Gunmen killed in suspected DR Congo coup attempt

NAIROBI - Six unknown gunmen have been killed in what appears to be a failed coup attempt at the home of the Democratic Republic of Congo’s president, a government official said Sunday.

Government spokesman Lambert Mende said President Joseph Kabila’s guards killed the six armed men who attacked the head of state’s residence in the capital Kinshasa.

The identity of the men or which group they represented was unknown.

DR Congo, a sprawling nation in Central Africa, still suffers unrest in the east, eight years after the end of a bloody war that sucked in the region.

Some five million people are believed to have died as a consequence of the 1998-2003 conflict.

Kabila took power in 2001 after the assassination of his father, and was then elected as president in 2006.