KINSHASA — The Democratic Republic of Congo government said Sunday that Bosco Ntaganda, a feared rebel leader wanted by the International Criminal Court for a string of atrocities, has fled to neighbouring Rwanda, but Kigali swifty dismissed the claims.

“He crossed (the border) on Saturday… he is in Rwanda today,” DR Congo government spokesman Lambert Mende told AFP.

Bosco Ntaganda 1Ntaganda, a former general nicknamed “The Terminator” widely seen as the instigator of the M23 group’s rebellion against Kinshasa last year, is wanted by the ICC for war crimes and crimes against humanity including rape, murder and recruiting child soldiers.

Kinshasa demanded that Kigali refuse to give asylum to the Rwandan-born Ntaganda, who Mende said had crossed the border at the same time as around several hundred fighters from a faction of the now divided M23.

Neighbouring Rwanda has been accused by Kinshasa and the United Nations of masterminding, arming and even commanding the M23 rebellion in the resource-rich east of DR Congo, the biggest country in central Africa.

Fighting between the M23 — mainly Tutsi army mutineers — and Congolese forces in the eastern province of North Kivu has displaced 500,000 people since May last year, according to the UN refugee agency. Over 25,000 Congolese fled to Rwanda, according to officials in Kigali.

But Rwanda scoffed at Kinshasa’s claims that Ntaganda was on its soil.

“Has Lambert Mende ever thought differently? Be serious!” Rwandan Foreign Minister Louise Mushikiwabo said in a text message sent in French.

When asked if she was denying Ntaganda was in Rwanda, she said her comment had “been clear”.

Mushikiwabo had said on Saturday that 600 fighters from the M23 had crossed into Rwanda, including its former political leader Jean-Marie Runiga whose faction has been fighting rivals loyal to the group’s military chief Sultani Makenga.

Kigali, which in turn accuses its neighbour of sheltering and supporting a Rwandan rebel group thought to include perpetrators of the 1994 genocide, signed a deal aimed at ending the crisis along with other countries in the Great Lakes region at a summit in Addis Ababa last month.

“Of course Kigali knows what it has to do because it signed the Addis Ababa framework agreement,” Mende said.

“That comes with a clear commitment: no asylum, no welcoming of criminals sought by international courts, no shelter for those who are under UN sanctions,” he said. “We are waiting to see how Kigali will stand by these pledges.”

The Addis accord aims to encourage the reform of weak institutions in the troubled former Belgian colony and calls for countries in the region to stop interfering in each other’s affairs, but its signing coincided with a rupture within the M23.

The alleged atrocities the feared Ntaganda has been charged with were committed in the Ituri region in the northeastern DR Congo in 2002-2003. But Ntaganda, who is believed to be in his 40s, is accused of having once again recruited under-age fighters in Nord-Kivu during the rebellion last year.

According to UN investigators, Ntaganda has managed to amass considerable wealth by running a large extortion empire in North Kivu, running rogue checkpoints and taxing the area’s many mines.

However, Rwanda is not a signatory to the ICC’s founding document, the Rome Statute, and therefore would not be obliged to hand Ntaganda over to the tribunal, sources at the ICC told AFP.

Neighbouring states have regularly been accused of meddling in the eastern DR Congo to gain control of its valuable minerals.