DR Congo rebel chief captured: police

Congolese and Rwandan soldiers chased down and captured Tutsi rebel leader Laurent Nkunda in Rwanda after he fled the Democratic Republic of Congo, officials from both countries said Friday.

The DR Congo army and Rwandan army "inform the public of the arrest of deposed general Laurent Nkunda Thursday at 10:30 pm while fleeing in Rwandan territory after putting up brief resistance," DR Congo police inspector general John Numbi said.

A Rwandan army official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told AFP Nkunda was being held at a "secret location" in Rwanda.

A source among the remaining rebel forces said he was under house arrest in Gisenyi, near the Congolese border.

Nkunda, who walked away from a post of general in the Congolese army to lead the National Congress for the Defence of the People (CNDP), has been the subject of a Congolese arrest warrant since 2005.

It accuses him of war crimes in the town of Bukavu, in the eastern province of Sud-Kivu, which his forces captured in June 2004.

One legal official in DR Congo said the Rwandans were waiting for a letter from the Congolese authorities before handing over.

Rwanda sent thousands of troops into Congo Tuesday as part of a joint operation to eradicate the Hutu rebels of Rwandan Democratic Liberation Forces (FDLR), he said.

But the joint force also advanced Thursday on Nkunda's headquarters at Bunagana in the Nord-Kivu region of the east of the country.

They clashed briefly with forces loyal to him around Chengerero, about five kilometres (three miles) west of Bunagana, a local source said.

Nkunda had already left with a handful of men, heading for the Rwandan district of Bigogwe, near Ruhengeri -- the site of a refugee camp for ethnic Tutis from the Congolese region of Masisi -- said the same source.

Last year, Nkunda's CNDP nearly took over the regional capital of Goma, sparking a new humanitarian crisis as more than 115,000 people were forced to flee the fighting, joining thousands of others already displaced.

However, his position was weakened after his top commanders switched allegiance.

Bosco Ntaganda, the CNDP chief of staff who first challenged Nkunda's leadership in early January, announced on January 16 they were putting their forces at the disposal of the Congolese army.

His forces were ready to join the fight against the FDLR Hutu rebels, he said.

The CNDP rebels, which control much of eastern Congo, have since Tuesday been cooperating with the Congolese army and their new Rwandan allies.

Both countries want to finish off the FDLR, which took refuge in DR Congo after participating in Rwanda's 1994 genocide which saw the slaughter of 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus.

Kigali blamed Kinshasa for failing to disarm the 6,000-strong Hutu force, which has been at the root of more than a decade of distrust between the neighbours, who finally signed a pact in December.

The Rwandan army twice occupied eastern Congo in the 1990s in its battle against the FDLR rebels.

The return of Rwandan forces to Congolese territory had sparked alarm among local residents, aid agencies and the UN peacekeeping force MONUC.

Around 600 Rwandan troops had taken up position in the verdant hills around the eastern village of Tongo on Thursday.

Their heavy guns are pointed towards FDLR positions, which locals said were around 10 kilometres (six miles) away, an AFP reporter said.

The population of Tongo is mostly Hutu and hostile to Rwanda. They were targeted by Rwandan forces in 1996 amid suspicions they had taken part in the 1994 genocide there.

Aid agencies such as UNICEF and local people have expressed concern the advancing military forces will fail to differentiate between local civilians and FDLR combatants.