Home News S.Africa police arrest 19 suspected DRC rebels

S.Africa police arrest 19 suspected DRC rebels

Published on 05/02/2013

South African police arrested 19 suspected Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) rebels in the north of the country in a dawn raid on Tuesday, it said.

The police elite anti-terrorism police struck in a dawn raid following months of intelligence gathering.

“They were arrested in the early hours of this morning, around 5:00 am (0300 GMT),” national police spokesman Lindela Masigo told AFP.

They are due to appear in a Pretoria court later Tuesday on charges of “transgressing the Foreign Military Assistance Act”.

He said the alleged rebels were nabbed on the outskirts of the country’s northern Limpopo province, but did not provide further details.

DR Congo has been trying to contain a rebellion by the Movement of March 23 (M23), which has been fighting the army since May last year in the country’s unstable Kivu region.

South Africa counts around 300,000 DRCongo immigrants.