DRC Rebel Chief Arrested in Rwanda
By VOA News
23 January 2009
Officials in the Democratic Republic of Congo say Congolese Tutsi rebel leader Laurent Nkunda has been arrested in neighboring Rwanda.
Authorities say Nkunda was detained Thursday as he fled across the border after resisting a joint Congolese and Rwandan military operation that had converged on his stronghold in the town of Bunagana.
More than 1,500 Rwandan troops crossed into the DRC Tuesday help Congolese troops hunt down and disarm Rwandan Hutu rebels who fled to the country in the wake of the 1994 Rwandan genocide..
Nkunda's rebels have clashed repeatedly in the eastern DRC with government forces, following the collapse of a peace deal last year. Nkunda says he is fighting to protect minority Tutsi communities from Hutu extremists.
Earlier this month, Nkunda's ex-chief of staff, Bosco Ntaganda, formed a splinter movement and said his forces would work with Congo's army to fight the Hutu militias.
Some information for this report was provided by AFP and Reuters.
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