DR Congo militia leaders arrested for allegedly killing UN soldiers

Three militia leaders suspected of involvement in attacks on UN soldiers in Ituri region of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) have been arrested, an army spokesman said Saturday.

Head of the Nationalist and Integrationist Front (FNI) Floribert Ndjabu, the group's former military commander Goda Sukpa,and Germanin Katanga, chief of the FNI-linked Forces of Patriotic Resistance in Ituri, were transferred to military police headquarters in Kinshasa Friday.

Ndjabu was arrested by DRC authorities in Kinshasa on Feb. 27. Sukpa and Katanga have been under house arrest in Kinshasa's GrandHotel after the killing of UN peacekeeping soldiers.

Earlier in a related development, Etienne Lona, military chief of the FNI, "gave himself up" at the Ituri headquarters of the UN mission, said the mission's spokesperson Eliana Naaba.

On Feb. 25, 21 Bangladeshi soldiers of the UN peacekeeping force on patrol were ambushed by unidentified gunmen in the Ituri region, leaving nine dead and 11 wounded.

That was the worst single loss suffered by the peacekeeping force in the country since it was deployed in 1999.

Xinhua