Three members of the United Nation's peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo were kidnapped Thursday in the eastern North Kivu province, a UN source said.

"Three members of MONUSCO (the 20,000-strong UN peacekeeping force)... have been kidnapped in Kibumba", some 30 kilometres (20 miles) from the provincial capital Goma, the source told AFP. A Congolese army officer said a UN vehicle had been recovered near the presumed site of their abduction.