Democratic Republic of Congo war crimes suspect Bosco Ntaganda has handed himself over to the US embassy in Kigali, the US says.
The state department said he had asked to be transferred to the International Criminal Court (ICC).
The ICC had issued an arrest warrant for Gen Ntaganda, known as « The Terminator », in 2006.
He denies charges of conscripting child soldiers, murder, ethnic persecution and rape during DR Congo’s conflict.
Eastern DR Congo has been riven by conflict since 1994, when some of the ethnic Hutu groups accused of carrying out the genocide in neighbouring Rwanda fled across the border.
On Sunday, the DR Congo government said Gen Ntaganda, who comes from the Tutsi ethnic group, had fled to Rwanda.
« I can confirm that Bosco Ntaganda… walked into the US embassy in Kigali this [Monday] morning, » US state department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland told reporters.
« He specifically asked to be transferred to the ICC in The Hague. »
The US was now in contact with the ICC and the Rwandan government to « facilitate his request », Ms Nuland added.
Rwanda’s Foreign Minister Louise Mushikiwabo said the government was « currently establishing further details on this evolving situation ».
‘Serious signal’
« We have just learned that Gen Ntaganda presented himself at the US Embassy early this morning, » she said, in a statement.
Neither the US nor Rwanda recognise the ICC.
Rights groups called for the US to transfer Gen Ntaganda to The Hague.
« Bosco Ntaganda is not called The Terminator for nothing. If he is at the US embassy, the US should immediately hand him over to the International Criminal Court for trial, » said Sasha Lezhnev, senior analyst for the Enough Project in Washington, Associate Press news agency reported.
« This would send serious signals to current and future warlords who continue to perpetrate atrocities in eastern Congo. »
Gen Ntaganda has fought in several different rebel groups, as well as the national armies of both Rwanda and DR Congo.
In November 2008, international journalists filmed him commanding and ordering his troops in the village of Kiwanja, 90km (55 miles) north of Goma, where 150 people were massacred in a single day.
In 2009, he was integrated into the Congolese national army and made a general following a peace deal between the government and rebel troops he commanded.
However, he defected from the army last April, accusing the government of failing to meet its promises.
DR Congo’s government had repeatedly accused Rwanda of backing Gen Ntaganda, an allegation it denies.
His military career started in 1990, at the age of 17, when he joined the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) rebels, now the ruling party in Kigali.
Since then, the Tutsi-dominated government in Kigali has twice invaded its larger neighbour, accusing it of failing to deal with the Hutu militias.
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