Associated Press is reporting General Laurent Nkunda, leader of the strongest rebel group in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, has been arrested. According to various reports, the feared Congolese rebel leader was apprehended Friday by a joint force of Rwandan and Congolese army troops in Rwanda.
The BBC reported Nkunda crossed the border after resisting a joint Rwandan-Congolese operation to arrest him. His arrest removes one obstacle to peace but other rebel groups remain active.
In recent weeks Nkunda’s once loyal troops had begun to splinter away from the flamboyant, but tyrannical leader. AP reported around 4,000 Rwandan troops this week entered Congo to help fight rebel forces in the area. The soldiers converged Thursday on Nkunda’s base camp at Bunagana, in eastern Congo, but Nkunda fled during the subsequent fighting and crossed into Rwanda, where he was captured.
The account of Nkunda’s arrest came from Captain Olivier Hamuli, a spokesman for the joint force, according to the Associated Press.