The UN Security Council on Tuesday put a Democratic Republic of Congo militia leader standing in the country's controversial election on the UN sanctions list.
Ntabo Ntaberi Sheka, head of the Mai Mai Sheka group, has been standing for parliament in eastern DR Congo even though he is wanted for his role in mass rapes in 2010.
France, Britain and the United States had Sheka added to the list of DR Congo individuals subject to a worldwide travel ban and assets freeze, they announced in a joint statement.
“Our missions strongly encourage the Congolese government to implement the existing arrest warrant currently outstanding against Sheka,” the three countries said.
The three powers said they are determined “to take firm action against those who oppose the disarmament of rebel groups in the Democratic Republic of Congo and who are responsible for the recruitment of children and serious human rights abuses.”
Sheka has been a candidate in the chaotic and bitterly contested election for the Walikale district of eastern DR Congo, where his militia group is accused of leading a campaign of terror over local inhabitants.
Margot Wallstrom, the UN special envoy on sexual violence in the conflict, said last week it was “completely unacceptable” that Sheka had been allowed to stand for Monday's election which some candidates now want annulled.
“Sheka is already indicted for crimes of sexual violence perpetrated against citizens of Walikale,” Wallstrom said, adding that asking for the votes of local people was a “grave insult.”
Militia fighters under Sheka's leadership are accused of carrying out hundreds of rapes of women and children between July 30 and August 2, 2010 in reprisal attacks against villages they accused of working with government forces.
The announcement came just before the UN Security Council unanimously voted to renew the DR Congo sanctions regime for another year because of the continued unrest in the north and south Kivu provinces in the east of the country.
UN sanctions, including an arms embargo, was first imposed against the militias and rebels in 2003 at the height of the DR Congo civil war. Five years of conflict in the central African nation and neighbouring countries up to 2003 caused the deaths of more than three million people.
The new sanctions resolution, drafted by France, highlighted continuing abuses in eastern DR Congo and stressed that “perpetrators must be brought to justice.”
The council expressed “concern that armed groups are turning increasingly to new sources of funding through diverse criminal activities, including illicit drug trafficking, illegal taxation and agricultural sales.”
There are about 25 individuals on the sanctions list, most of them militia leaders linked to conflict, mass rapes and attacks on villages and mines in the mineral-rich east of DR Congo. - AFP