Who is sultani makenga

General Sultani Makenga, the military commander of the M23 rebel movement, was said to have surrendered to Ugandan authorities after being chased over the border by UN-backed Congolese troops.

The end of the M23's brutal month uprising in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo has been hailed as a rare glimmer of hope in a mineral-rich region plagued by seemingly perpetual war, costing millions of lives. Makenga, 39, and his men were disarmed and being registered by the Ugandan military in Mgahinga, a forested national park near the Congolese border, an unnamed Ugandan military official told Associated Press. They would remain under Ugandan protection until regional governments, including those of Rwanda and Congo, agree on how to deal with "negative forces" in the region.

A former colonel in the Congolese army, Makenga is responsible for several massacres, sexual violence and the use of child soldiers in eastern Congo, according to research by UN human rights investigators and Human Rights Watch. He is on both UN and US sanctions lists. Julien Paluku, governor of Congo's North Kivu province, told AP: "Makenga should be arrested and immediately brought before the courts.

He should be made to answer for his actions in eastern Congo. With the political sands in DR Congo constantly shifting, he broke ties with the Kabila dynasty to wage a rebellion against their rule, accusing them of failing to end the economic and political marginalisation of his minority Tutsi ethnic group in eastern DR Congo.

Col Makenga's military career reached its peak in November when his forces briefly captured Goma, the main city in eastern DR Congo.

He stature also grew after his fighters off a challenge by his rival in the M23 - Gen Bosco Ntaganda - to depose him as the group's military commander. Gen Ntaganda fled to Rwanda, where he surrendered to the US embassy. He is now in the custody of the International Criminal Court, awaiting trial on war crimes charges. The same leaked UN report has also infuriated Kampala after accusing it of arming the Congolese rebels.

It has threatened to withdraw Ugandan forces from UN-backed international missions as a consequence. Africa Today podcasts.

UN mission in DR Congo. Rwanda government.