WITH CONGOLESE and Rwandan soldiers closing in on his rebel headquarters, Gen Laurent Nkunda turned and ran for the protection of his sponsors on the far side of the border with Rwanda.
What he did not know was that after supporting his rebellion and helping him mop up Hutu forces responsible for genocide in Rwanda, the government in Kigali had finally had enough of the increasingly narcissistic rebel leader.
Gen Nkunda (40) was arrested by Rwandan troops late on Thursday night.
Yesterday Congolese officials launched extradition proceedings to return the general to face allegations that his troops committed war crimes.
Maj Jill Rutaremara, Rwandan army spokesman, said Gen Nkunda surrendered peacefully after becoming an obstacle to an offensive launched with Congolese forces.
“Whoever resists the smooth running of the joint operation is a barrier,” Maj Rutaremara said by telephone from Tanzania. “He was a barrier.”
The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is still recovering from a series of wars and rebellions that have killed five million people since 1998.
While elections in 2006 helped to bring stability to much of the country, the east remains riven by fighting. The region is rich in minerals, such as copper, coltan and gold, adding to the tensions.
Until his arrest, Gen Nkunda’s National Congress for the Defence of the People (CNDP) had been key allies of Rwanda. He claimed to be protecting Congolese Tutsis from Hutu militias.
A UN report last year cited evidence that Gen Nkunda had received cash and recruits from Kigali to help his forces clear the Congolese forests of the FDLR, Hutus who were responsible for much of the Rwandan genocide.
However, analysts believe Rwanda had become frustrated with Gen Nkunda’s posturing and brutal tactics.
He was also accused of embezzling cash from rebel funds.
This week several senior CNDP commanders signed a peace deal with Kinshasa in a direct challenge to Gen Nkunda’s leadership.
Last year fighting sparked by his rebels displaced a quarter of a million people around the city of Goma, in the far east of the DRC, and threw an international spotlight on to Kigali’s relationship with the former Congolese army general.
Human Rights Watch accused Nkunda of killing dozens of civilians in the town of Kiwanja.
In November, Rwanda and the DRC agreed to launch a joint offensive against the Hutu militias.
Gen Nkunda openly said he would oppose the joint operation, knowing that his proxy army would lose its sponsor if Rwandan troops were allowed on to Congolese soil.
François Grignon, Africa director of the International Group, said: “He’s an embarrassment for Kigali and he became part of the deal between Kinshasa and Kigali.
“He went too far. He may have secrets that Rwanda will not want to give up, but the pressure to hand him over to Kinshasa will be intense.”
About 4,000 Rwandan troops entered the DRC on Tuesday.
Along with Congolese soldiers, they closed in on Gen Nkunda’s village stronghold of Bunagana, close to the border with Uganda.
Officials said three battalions of rebels tried to resist before Gen Nkunda fled south, crossing the low hills which mark the frontier with Rwanda.