A total of five people
were killed in the offensive that eliminated a Rwandan Hutu rebel leader in DR
Congo who was wanted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes, the
Congolese army said Thursday.
Sylvestre Mudacumura, commander
of the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), was killed in
DRC's North Kivu province on Tuesday night as was his "secretary
general", the military said.
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| In this file photograph taken on February 6, 2009, a pair of FDLR rebels stand in dense forest outside Pinga, Goma. |
"The final assessment: five
killed, including Mudacumura and his secretary general, four captured and four
weapons recovered," Colonel Sylvain Ekenge, a deputy military spokesman,
told AFP.
"The body of the secretary
general and the captured are coming to Goma very soon," he added.
Mudacumura, wanted for charges
including rape, torture and pillage, was killed about 60 kilometres (37 miles)
from the capital of the province Goma.
Neighbouring Rwanda welcomed the
news, saying it proved DRC President Felix Tshisekedi's commitment to fighting
"negative forces".
"The death of Sylvestre
Mudacumura is good news for peace and security in the region," Rwandan
state minister for regional affairs Olivier Nduhungirehe told AFP.
"With his genocide group,
the FDLR, he was destabilising DRC, killing Congolese and Rwandans."
The FDLR was created by Rwandan
Hutu refugees in eastern DRC after the genocide against the Tutsis by majority
Hutus in Rwanda in 1994.
According to the United Nations,
the force numbers between 500 and 600 active fighters.
They are scattered across the
mineral-rich eastern Congolese provinces of North and South Kivu as well as in
southern Katanga, and the group is regularly accused of committing atrocities
against civilians in the zones it controls.
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