The Democratic Republic of Congo needs to control sexual violence despite the arrest of a rebel leader tied to mass rapes, the British government said.
French authorities acting on an arrest warrant issued in September by the International Criminal Court transferred alleged Rwandan rebel leader Callixte Mbarushimana to the ICC detention center in The Hague.
He is charged with five counts of crimes against humanity and six counts of war crimes for atrocities committed in 2009 in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
British Minister for Africa Henry Bellingham praised the arrest as a breakthrough in investigating mass rapes in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
"We encourage the government of DRC to continue to work to put a stop to these crimes and to end impunity for all human rights abuses," he said in a statement.
The ICC said the rebel leader was since July 2007 the executive secretary of the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda, or FDLR. The FDLR was described by the U.S. Treasury Department, which sanctioned the group, as one of the most violent groups in the DRC.
The militant group, as well as members of the Congolese military, was highlighted in a recent U.N. report on mass rapes in the region last summer.
A report by U.N. human rights officials and the U.N. peacekeeping mission in the DRC found that at least 35 women were raped and 32 people were injured by Congolese troops in early January.
