UN peacekeepers and the army in DR Congo have arrested a rebel leader suspected of leading attacks involving the mass rape of hundreds of civilians.
The UN said Lt Col Mayele of the Mai Mai Cheka rebel group,was captured in a joint operation in North Kivu province.
Between 300 and 500 people are thought to have been raped during violence in eastern DR Congo in July and August.
Peacekeepers were criticised for failing to stop the attacks, some of which took place close to a UN base.
A UN spokesman said the rebel leader, a commander in the Mai Mai Cheka militia, was arrested in the Walikale region of North Kivu and was being transferred to the Congolese army.
The BBC's Thomas Fessy, in Kinshasa, says there are suggestions he may have been handed over by other members of the militia.
The arrest was carried out while the UN's representative on sexual violence, Margot Wallstrom, was in the country to visit some of the victims of the attack. She welcomed it as "a victory for justice".
"Let his apprehension be a signal to all perpetrators of sexual violence that impunity for these types of crimes is not accepted and that justice will prevail," she said.
A preliminary UN report into the attacks in July and August has found that at least 303 men, women and children were raped around Luvungi, in the Walikale region, some repeatedly, over a period of four days by around 200 armed rebels.
Another 214 unconfirmed cases of rape are under investigation in other areas of eastern DR Congo, according to the UN.
More than 1,000 homes and businesses were also looted and 166 people abducted for forced labour, says the report.
Victims interviewed said they believed the purpose of the attacks was to intimidate local people seen by the rebels as government supporters
The UN mission in DR Congo (Monusco) has admitted it did not do enough to prevent the attacks, which took place only a few miles from a peacekeeping base.
BBC News
