Congolese ex-Vice-President Jean-Pierre Bemba will face five counts of war crimes, the International Criminal Court has ruled.

Fighters from his Movement for the Liberation of Congo were accused of committing atrocities when they intervened in the conflict in CAR.

At a pre-trial hearing in January, the prosecutor said:

"Bemba wanted to traumatise and terrorise the civilian population so they would not support the rebels."

The ICC said sex attacks against women and girls had been found to be the most widespread form of criminality.

Rape has become a weapon of war often used to fuel ethnic cleansing, it said.

The ICC said funding was needed for the rehabilitation of victims in northern Uganda, DR Congo, the Central African Republic and Sudan's region of Darfur.