The security chief of a Rwandan warlord wanted under an international warrant has been arrested in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, a military spokesman said Sunday.
Patrick Sabimana was detained by DR Congo armed forces "during a commando operation against him" on Thursday, military spokesman Guillaume Ndjike in the troubled North Kivu province told AFP.
Sabimana is head of security for warlord Sylvestre Mudacumura of the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), who is wanted for crimes committed in the volatile eastern Kivu region.
Sabimana was arrested in the town of Katsiru, which is located about 100 kilometres (60 miles) northwest of the regional capital, Goma. The FDLR are very active in this part of North Kivu.
He was taken Friday to Goma, the capital of North Kivu province, the spokesman said, adding that the "arrest will do a lot to stabilise other parts of the FDLR."
The FDLR was created by Rwandan Hutu refugees in eastern DR Congo after the genocide of Tutsis by majority Hutus in Rwanda in 1994, which killed more than 800,000 people according to UN figures.
Mudacumura has been wanted under an international arrest warrant since July 2012.
US campaign group Human Rights Watch called on the UN's MONUSCO mission in DR Congo and on the country's authorities to arrest Mudacumura in July 2015.
The founders of the FDLR, as well as some of its longest-serving fighters, are wanted by international prosecutors who accuse them of having taken an active part in the Rwandan genocide.
Opposed to the government in Kigali, the FDLR — mostly spread across North and South Kivu — have not launched any major military action in Rwanda since 2001.
But they are regularly accused of committing atrocities against civilians in areas under their control.
Eastern DR Congo has been ravaged for over 20 years by armed conflicts fuelled by ethnic and land disputes, competition for mineral resources and rivalry between regional powers.
