Friday, January 23, 2009

LAURENT NKUNDA ARRESTED


Gen Laurent Nkunda, the leader of the largest rebel group in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, has been arrested, the military says.

He was arrested as he fled into Rwanda while trying to resist a joint Rwandan-Congolese military operation, the operation's joint command said.

Some 3,500 Rwandan troops entered DR Congo on Tuesday to help government forces disarm Rwandan Hutu FDLR rebels.

Gen Nkunda has been leading the rival CNDP Tutsi insurgency.

He has, says the BBC's Africa analyst, Martin Plaut, been caught in the rapidly changing diplomatic situation in Central Africa.

Gen Nkunda had been Rwanda's ally in eastern DR Congo - a Tutsi, he guarded their Western flank against attacks from the Hutu forces who fled there after the Rwandan genocide of 1994.









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