• War crimes suspect 'the Terminator' arrives at The Hague

    Katrina Manson / Reuters / REUTERS

    Indicted war criminal Bosco Ntaganda poses for a photograph during an interview with Reuters in Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo, Oct. 5, 2010.

    By Jenny Clover, Reuters

    A Congolese warlord known as "the Terminator" who is accused of murder, rape and other atrocities arrived at the International Criminal Court's jail in the Netherlands early on Saturday, the court said.

    Bosco Ntaganda, who walked off the street and gave himself up at the U.S. Embassy in Kigali in a surprise move on Monday, was flown in a private jet from the Rwandan capital to The Hague after being handed over to the court's custody.


    After a 15-year career that spanned a series of Rwandan-backed rebellions in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo, he will appear in court on Tuesday for the first hearing in a process that could lead to him being put on trial for war crimes.

    Ntaganda was most recently a commander in the M23 rebel movement, but his position weakened after the group split in two.

    His removal from the conflict creates an opportunity to secure a peace agreement to end the year-old rebellion in a region dogged by conflicts.

    Ntaganda's surrender was the first time an ICC suspect had voluntarily handed themselves over to be in the court's custody.

    He asked stunned U.S. officials at the embassy to be transferred to the court, where he will face charges of recruiting child soldiers, murder, ethnic persecution, sexual slavery and rape during the 2002-3 conflict in northeastern Congo's gold mining Ituri district.

    His whereabouts had been unknown after hundreds of his fighters fled into Rwanda or surrendered to U.N. peacekeepers last weekend following their defeat by a rival faction of M23 rebels in the mineral-rich eastern Congo.

    "Bosco thought his choice was the ICC or probable death," said Jason Stearns of the Rift Valley Institute.

    Victory for victims
    Foreign Minister Louise Mushikiwabo said Ntaganda flew out of Kigali in the custody of ICC officials following cooperation between the Rwandan, U.S. and Dutch governments.

    A Reuters witness had seen a blacked-out U.S. Embassy vehicle under police escort drive along the perimeter of Kigali international airport. Shortly after, a private jet took off.

    His first courtroom appearance, to confirm his identity, will be on Tuesday morning, the court said in a statement.

    With an arrest warrant hanging over him, Ntaganda and his backers were seen as an obstacle to peace between the M23 and the Congolese government that the rival faction had shown signs of warming to.

    "Bosco's arrest won't bring peace to the eastern Congo, but Bosco's arrest does spell a victory in the battle against impunity and the dismantling of one of the barriers to a peace process in the country," Stearns said.

    The trial of Rwandan-born Ntaganda could prove an embarrassment to the Rwandan government, which has denied charges by a United Nations panel that it backs the M23 rebels.

    ICC prosecutor Fatou Bensouda might seek to add additional charges related to rebellions that followed the alleged Ituri crimes, analysts said.

    Wars in Congo have killed about five million people in the past decade and a half, and many eastern areas are still afflicted by violence from a number of rebel groups despite a decade-long U.N. peacekeeping mission.

    "Bosco Ntaganda's arrival in The Hague will be a major victory for victims of atrocities in eastern Congo," said Geraldine Mattioli-Zeltner, international justice advocacy director at Human Rights Watch.

    Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

  • War crimes suspect 'The Terminator' surrenders at U.S. Embassy in Rwanda

    Lionel Healing / AFP

    Congolese rebel general Bosco Ntaganda, seen in 2009.

    By Alastair Jamieson, Staff writer, NBC News

    Bosco Ntaganda, a former rebel militia leader known as 'The Terminator' and wanted for suspected war crimes in Congo, has given himself up at the U.S. Embassy in Kigali in neighboring Rwanda, Reuters reported Monday.

    "We have learned today that Bosco Ntaganda entered Rwanda and surrendered to (the) U.S. Embassy in Kigali," Rwandan Foreign Minister Louise Mushikiwabo posted to Twitter on Monday.

    The surrender was confirmed by U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland.

    Ntaganda, leader of the Congelese rebel group M23, is wanted by the International Criminal Court.

    News site Al-Jazeera described him as a "feared military commander who runs a vast extortion empire in the mineral-rich east of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)."

    Human Rights Watch said it had been documenting atrocities by troops under Ntaganda’s command for over 10 years. It said Ntaganda crimes include recruiting and using child soldiers, murder, rape and sexual slavery, and persecution.

    "I can confirm that this morning Bosco Ntaganda, and ICC indictee and leader of one of the M23 factions, walked into U.S. Embassy Kigali," Nuland told reporters. "He specifically asked to be transferred to the ICC in the Hague. We are currently consulting with a number of governments, including the Rwandan government, in order to facilitate his request."

    Neither Rwanda nor the United States has an obligation to hand Ntaganda over to The Hague-based ICC since they are not parties to the Rome Statute that established the court.

    Ntaganda’s rebels have been fleeing into Rwanda or surrendering to UN peacekeepers in recent days after being defeated by a rival faction, Reuters reported.

    Recent fighting in DRC, including infighting within M23, has sent thousands of Congolese civilians fleeing to neighboring Uganda.

     

    This story was originally published on Mon Mar 18, 2013 1:53 PM EDT

  • 'A big catch': Record two tons of ivory seized in Kenya

    Police in Kenya have seized more than two tons of ivory worth $1.15 million. NBCNews.com's Dara Brown reports.

    By James Macharia, Reuters
    MOMBASA, Kenya — Police in Kenya have seized more than two tons of ivory worth 100 million shillings ($1.15 million), the biggest haul on record in the east African country, officials said on Tuesday.

    "This is a big catch, the biggest ever single seizure of ivory at the port of Mombasa," said Kiberenge Seroney, the port's police officer in charge of criminal investigations. "We fail to understand where one gathers the courage to park such enormous quantities of ivory, hoping that they can slip through our security systems."

    Poaching is a growing problem for sub-Saharan African countries reliant on rich wildlife in their game reserves to draw foreign tourists.

    Heavily-armed criminals kill elephants and rhinos for their tusks, which are used for ornaments and in some folk medicines. Most of the elephant tusks smuggled from Africa ends up in Asian countries, according to police.

    On Jan. 5, poachers killed a family of 11 elephants in the biggest single mass shooting of the animals on record in Kenya, wildlife officials said.

    Gitau Gitau, an assistant commissioner with the Kenya Revenue Authority, said paperwork accompanying a container at the port of Mombasa declared it contained decorative stones.

    The carcasses of a family of elephants have been found in a wildlife reserve in Kenya - the victims of the worst massacre on record by ivory poachers there. NBC News' Rohit Kachroo reports.

    "But when we opened it we found elephant tusks," said Gitau as he displayed the ivory. "The ivory was originating from Rwanda and Tanzania and was to be exported to Indonesia."

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    Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

  • Rebels pledge to 'liberate' Congo after seizing city

    James Akena / Reuters

    A United Nations peacekeepers' armored vehicle drives past rebels patrolling a street in Goma in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo after they captured the city from the government army on Tuesday.

    By NBC News staff and wire reports

    GOMA, Democratic Republic of Congo -- Rebel forces in eastern Congo said Wednesday they planned to take control of the entire country after capturing the city of Goma as United Nations peacekeepers looked on.

    A spokesman for the M23 rebels -- a group widely believed to be backed by Rwanda -- said they planned to "liberate" the country by marching on the capital, Kinshasa, nearly 1,000 miles away.


    The rebels had previously said they were seeking talks with Democratic Republic of Congo's President Joseph Kabila.

    "The journey to liberate Congo has started now ... We're going to move on to Bukavu and then to Kinshasa. Are you ready to join us?" Vianney Kazarama, spokesman for the M23 rebels, told a crowd of more than 1,000 in a stadium in Goma.

    PhotoBlog: Congo police surrender as rebels take control of Goma

    Goma fell Tuesday when hundreds of rebel fighters poured into the city and government troops melted away after sporadic gunfire.

    Rebels used local radio and television stations to appeal for calm, but there are fears of human rights abuses and tens of thousands of people had already fled days of fighting between the rebels and U.N.-backed Congolese soldiers.

    Rebel soldiers attack Goma in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The rebels are allegedly backed by Rwanda and threaten troops backed by United Nations peacekeepers. NBCNews.com's Dara Brown reports.

    Rebel army seizes control of Congo city as UN peacekeepers do nothing

    The M23 rebellion has aggravated tensions between Congo and its neighbor Rwanda, which Kinshasa's government says is orchestrating the insurgency as a means of grabbing the region's mineral wealth, which includes diamonds, gold and coltan, a metal used in mobile phones.

    While conflict has simmered almost constantly in Congo's east in recent years, this is the first time Goma has fallen to rebels since foreign occupying armies officially pulled out under peace deals at the end of the most recent 1998-2003 war, dubbed "Africa's World War" because so many countries became involved. 

    Aid agencies have estimated that 5 million people have died from fighting and conflict-related disease since the 1998 war began.

    Phil Moore / AFP - Getty Images

    Twelve-year-old amputee Kakule Elie, who was hit by a stray bullet, lies in a bed in a hospital in Goma Tuesday.

    Congo rebel clashes stoke fears of broader conflict

    Diplomats at the United Nations and regional mediators in Central Africa have been seeking to prevent an escalation of hostilities in Congo, which is the size of Western Europe.

    Kabila and Rwandan Paul Kagame were due to meet later on Wednesday after holding three-way talks with Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni late on Tuesday, sources in the Ugandan presidency said.

    Rights group blasts Rwanda winning seat on UN Security Council

    In New York, the U.N. Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution late on Tuesday condemning the seizure of Goma and demanding that M23’s forces should withdraw and disband.

    The council also expressed "deep concern at reports indicating that external support continues to be provided to the M23.”

    Hague war crimes court to finds Congo warlord guilty

    The French government expressed frustration with U.N. peacekeepers, who gave up the battle for the city of a million people after Congo's army retreated, saying it was "absurd" that the U.N. force did not protect the city.

    "MONUSCO [the U.N. force] is 17,000 soldiers, but sadly it was not in a position to prevent what happened," French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said of the U.N.'s Congo mission. "It is necessary that the MONUSCO mandate is reviewed."

    Congo crisis exacerbated by heavy rains

    But a senior U.N. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the withdrawal of civilian and military Congolese officials had left a void it could not fill alone.

    "We're not the army of any country, let alone the Congolese army, and it's not for us to take positions by ourselves to stop a rebel attack or the movement of rebels," the official said. "Our job is to protect civilians.”

    Reuters contributed to this report.

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  • Rebel army seizes control of Congo city as UN peacekeepers do nothing

    Rebel soldiers attack Goma in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The rebels are allegedly backed by Rwanda and threaten troops backed by United Nations peacekeepers. NBCNews.com's Dara Brown reports.

    By Reuters

    GOMA -- Rebels widely believed to be backed by Rwanda claimed control of Goma in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo Tuesday, parading through this frontier city of a million people past United Nations peacekeepers who did nothing to stop them.

    Hundreds of fighters from the M23 group entered Goma after days of clashes with U.N.-backed Congolese soldiers that forced tens of thousands of residents to flee.


    A senior U.N. source told Reuters that international peacekeepers had given up defending the city after the Congolese troops left.

    "There is no army left in the town, not a soul... Once they were in the town what could we do? It could have been very serious for the population," he said, asking not to be named.

    The rebellion has aggravated tensions between Congo and its neighbor Rwanda, which Kinshasa's government says is orchestrating the insurgency as a means of grabbing the chaotic region's mineral wealth.

    Rwanda denies the assertion.

    However, Congolese Information Minister Lambert Mende ruled out talks with the rebels, suggesting they were proxies of the Rwandan government.

    "We will continue (resisting) until Rwanda has been pushed out of our country ... There will be absolutely no negotiations with M23," Mende said, adding that Kinshasa would talk only directly with Rwanda.

    Rights group blasts Rwanda winning seat on UN Security Council

    U.N. experts say Rwanda, a small but militarily capable neighbor that has intervened in Congo repeatedly over the past 18 years, is behind the M23 revolt.

    Congo's mineral wealth, including diamonds, gold, copper and coltan, a metal used in mobile phones, has inflamed the conflict and little has been spent on developing a country the size of western Europe.

    Goma's capture will also be an embarrassment for President Joseph Kabila, who won re-election late last year in polls that provoked widespread riots in Kinshasa and that international observers said were marred by fraud.

    Oct. 14, 2010: Margot Wallstrom, the UN Representative investigating sexual crimes in the Democratic Republic of Congo, was brought to tears by the stories she heard from women who had been ITN's Lindsey Hilsum reports.

    Hague war crimes court to finds Congo warlord guilty

    Congolese state television reported on Tuesday that Kabila, who has made few public comments on the rebellion in recent weeks, is travelling to Uganda, the mediator in the conflict with the eastern rebels.

    In the capital Kinshasa, security forces used tear gas and fired shots in the air to disperse a few hundred youths protesting the fall of Goma in a central square. Residents in Congo's second city, Kisangani, attacked Kabila's local party headquarters in frustration.

    Hundreds of M23 fighters accompanied their leader Sultani Makenga into Goma, where they were greeted by cheering crowds shouting "welcome" and "thank you."

    "We've taken the town, it's under control," said Colonel Vianney Kazarama, a spokesman for the rebels. "We're very tired, we're going to greet our friends now."

    Congo crisis exacerbated by heavy rains

    On Monday, Kazarama had denied the rebels would take the city.

    The U.N. has about 6,700 peacekeeping troops in North Kivu, including some 1,400 troops in and around Goma, and the mission had previously promised to defend the town.

    On Tuesday afternoon, armored U.N. vehicles continued to circulate in the town offering help to residents, but troops did not try to block the rebels. No government troops were to be seen.

    Before the rebels seized the city, streams of residents headed for the nearby border with Rwanda. More than 50,000 people who fled fighting earlier this year have abandoned refugee camps around Goma.

    "With the war, we're suffering so much, I've never seen anything like this in my life," a woman who gave her name only as Aisha told Reuters, clutching her three children. 

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  • Rights group blasts Rwanda winning seat on UN Security Council

    By Reuters

    UNITED NATIONS - Rwanda - along with Australia, Argentina, Luxembourg and South Korea - won a seat on the U.N. Security Council on Thursday, despite accusations by a U.N. panel that Rwanda's defense minister commands a rebellion in Democratic Republic of Congo.


    Rwanda was unopposed in its bid for the African seat on the council that South Africa will vacate at the end of December, but still needed approval from two-thirds of the U.N. General Assembly members present to secure the two-year term. It won 148 votes in the 193-nation assembly.

    Argentina also was elected to the council unopposed, winning 182 votes. Australia won a seat with 140 votes, Luxembourg with 131 votes and South Korea with 149.

    Cambodia, Bhutan and Finland failed to secure two-year seats on the council.

    There are five veto-holding permanent members of the council - the United States, Britain, France, Russia and China - and 10 temporary members without veto power. Thursday's election was for the term from January 1, 2013, to December 31, 2014.

    Rwanda's government said that it would work with all members of the council to ensure "it is responsive and reflective of the views & aspirations of the developing world."

    "Rwanda's troubling and tragic past allows it to bring to the UNSC a unique perspective on matters of war and peace," it posted on a Twitter account created for its Security Council term (@RwandaUNSC).

    Watch World News videos on NBCNews.com 

    Before the vote, the Congolese delegation told the General Assembly it objected to Rwanda joining the Security Council, accusing its neighbor of harboring "war criminals operating in the eastern part of the DRC and who are being sought by international justice." 

    A confidential U.N. report, seen by Reuters on Tuesday, cast a shadow over Rwanda's election to the 15-member U.N. power center - which has the ability to impose sanctions and authorize military interventions.

    Support for rebels
    The Security Council's "Group of Experts" said that Rwanda and Uganda - despite their strong denials - continued to support M23 rebels in their six-month fight against Congolese government troops in the east of the country. 

    Rwandan President Paul Kagame posted a declaration on Twitter welcoming the result: "No matter what haters say ... justice&truth will prevail!!! Sometimes it just requires a bit of good fight for all that...!!!" 

    Speaking to reporters in New York, Rwandan Foreign Minister Louise Mushikiwabo complained about the timing of the leak of the experts report to Reuters two days ahead of the Security Council vote, but added that the leak was "predictable."

    She also sought to assure Congo that Rwanda would be a responsible council member. "I believe the Democratic Republic of Congo should see Rwanda on the Security Council as value addition," she said after the vote.

    Philippe Bolopion of the advocacy group Human Rights Watch criticized the inclusion of Rwanda on the Security Council

    "After blatantly violating the Security Council's arms embargo and undermining the work of the U.N. by propping up the abusive M23 rebels, Rwanda is rewarded with a seat at the table," he said.

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    "Kigali is now in a position to try to shield its own officials implicated in abuses from U.N. sanctions, which is a flagrant conflict of interest," Bolopion said in a statement. "Other Security Council members now have an even greater responsibility to hold Rwanda to account." 

    Britain's Deputy U.N. Ambassador Philip Parham put a more positive spin on Rwanda's election, saying: "We look forward to working with them on issues of international peace and security including the efforts to try to end the cycle of violence in the eastern DRC."

    Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr described Australia's election as a "big juicy, decisive win" that endorsed the country as a good global citizen.

    Heavy rains exacerbate Congo crisis

    "For us as a middle power a long way from the centers of clout in the world, the centers of power in the world, this is a lovely moment," Carr told reporters after the vote.

    South Africa, Colombia, Germany, India and Portugal are leaving the Security Council in December. Azerbaijan, Guatemala, Pakistan, Togo and Morocco will remain until the end of 2013.

    The last time Rwanda was on the council was in 1994-95. That coincided with a genocide in which 800,000 people were killed when Rwanda's Hutu-led government and ethnic militias went on a 100-day killing spree, massacring Tutsis and moderate Hutus.

    The Congolese government on Wednesday demanded targeted sanctions against Rwandan and Ugandan officials named in the U.N. experts report.

    According to the U.N. experts, who monitor compliance with sanctions and an arms embargo on the Congo, Rwandan Defense Minister General James Kabarebe was ultimately commanding the rebellion and both Rwanda and Uganda were providing weapons, troops and military and political aid to the insurgency.

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    Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

  • Self-taught engineer brings hydroelectric power to Rwanda village

    Dai Kurokawa / EPA

    Anastase Tabaro, a self-taught engineer, walks by a stream near his hydroelectricity generating station in Rutare, Rwanda.

     

    Dai Kurokawa / EPA

    Anastase Tabaro at a friend's home in Rutare, 45km north of the capital Kigali.

    The European Pressphoto Agency reports — Anastase Tabaro, a self-taught engineer who had just six years of elementary-level education as a child, has built a hydroelectric system that provides power to some 700 households in and around his village in rural Rwanda.

    The 59-year-old started his research in 1990 with the ultimate ambition of selling power to his neighbors, none of whom had access to electricity at that time. He built a turbine and constructed a barrage dam that he channels water from to power a generator. 

    "I grew up in [neighboring] Democratic Republic of Congo and my village had electricity," Tabaro says. "Then my family moved to Rwanda and our village had no electricity. I felt I couldn't live without electricity so I started to research by myself."

    Dai Kurokawa / EPA

    Tabaro sets up a television to play a DVD at his friend's home.

    Locals come to Tabaro's home to charge their cellphones, for which he charges them 20 cents apiece.

    According to kumatoo.com, a website dedicated to celebrating the ingenuity of the African people, news of Tabaro's achievements has reached the capital.

    The Rwandan government decided to support this project by installing electrical poles in the village to supply electricity to a dozen homes, including the church.

    With electricity, it is no longer necessary in Ngororero to cut wood for cooking or to use petrol for lighting. Electricity has changed the lives of the villagers (continue reading).

    Some have even bought televisions and DVD players now that they have electricity supplied by Tabaro's system. "It's like a magic. Now my family can enjoy watching a movie, listening to a radio at our home. He's our man, our hero," a resident of Rutate village says.

    The Guardian on Paul Kagame's Rwanda: African success story or authoritarian state?

    According to the government, only 14 percent of Rwandans had access to electricity in 2011.

    Dai Kurokawa / EPA

    Tabaro stands next to a barrage he constructed to control the amount of water passing the dam.

    Dai Kurokawa / EPA

    Tabaro sits next to a turbine generator he has built inside his generating station.

    Dai Kurokawa / EPA

    People take shelter from the rain in Rutare village.

    EDITOR'S NOTE: These photos were taken in May 2012 and made available to NBC News today.

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  • Rwanda arrests four top military officers

    By msnbc.com staff and news services

    KIGALI, Rwanda -- Rwanda's military has put under house arrest four top military officers over allegations of business dealings in the mineral-rich Democratic Republic of Congo, a statement from an army spokesman said on Wednesday.

    Three generals and one colonel were suspended during an investigation for "indiscipline," according to the statement, reported by the Associated Press and the BBC.

    One of the suspects under investigation is Brig. Gen. Richard Rutatina, who is head of military intelligence and an adviser to Rwandan President Paul Kagame.

    A BBC reporter in the Rwandan capital, Kigali, said the arrest came as a shock considering the rank of the officers.

    Also reported held were Lt. Gen. Fred Ibingira, chief of staff of the reserves force, Gen. Wilson Gumisiriza, division commander, and Col. Dan Munyuza, external intelligence chief.

    Rwanda's army, which has invaded Congo twice, has denied in the past looting the country's mineral wealth.

    The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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