A court in Rwanda has sentenced to death six people convicted of killing five United Nations human rights monitors last year.

The UN workers -- a Briton, a Cambodian and three Rwandans -- were ambushed in the south-western town of Cyangugu last February as they travelled in a clearly marked UN vehicle.

In a separate court case, a senior Rwandan academic has been sentenced to death for his part in the genocide of 1994, in which up to a million people were killed.

The court heard that Dr Geoffrey Gatera used his position as the Dean of the medical faculty at Butare University to oversee the killings of hundreds of Tutsis.

Many of the victims had taken refuge at the university hospital, where Dr Gatera was chief surgeon.