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| Africa Subsaharan |
| Rwanda Arrests Congo Rebel Leader Laurent Nkunda |
| 2009-01-24 |
| Congolese rebel leader Laurent Nkunda, whose recent advance across eastern Congo threatened to plunge the region into another all-out war, was arrested late Thursday evening in a joint Rwandan-Congolese military operation, according to U.N. and Rwandan officials. The arrest represents a stunning reversal of fortune for the brash Nkunda, whose Tutsi-dominated rebel movement was largely a Rwandan creation. It comes just a day after thousands of Rwandan troops poured into eastern Congo to join the Congolese army in a mission to hunt down the Rwandan Hutu militia known as the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda, or FDLR, whose members fled into the region after 1994 Rwandan genocide. Together, the two events mark a major turning point in a complex conflict that has simmered and raged across eastern Congo for more than a decade, leaving by some estimates up to 5 million people dead from starvation, disease and other effects of being driven from their homes. "It's hugely significant," said Alan Doss, the United Nations envoy to the region. "I hope it will result in now putting to an end this chapter -- dealing with the FDLR problem and ending a rebellion and putting the country back on the road to peace." An estimated 4,000 to 5,000 Rwandan troops entered Congo this week at the start of a joint operation that was itself surprising given the enmity between the two countries. The Rwandan and Congolese troops moved Thursday on one of Nkunda's strongholds in the town of Bunagana near the Ugandan border, according to a U.N. military official who asked not to be named. According to one account, Nkunda, a former Congolese army general, was arrested as he was negotiating the terms of rejoining the Congolese army and cooperating with the joint force in its hunt for the FDLR. |
| Posted by:Fred |