KAMPALA, Uganda

Three Tanzanian rebels of the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) were arrested in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, UN radio in the Central African country reported on Monday.

"Three Tanzanian ADF rebels were arrested by the armed forces of the DRC during a combat patrol in the Mwalika valley in the chiefdom of Bashu, in the Beni territory of Nord Kivu province,” the radio quoted army spokesperson Captain Anthony Mwalushay as saying.

The rebels, he said, confessed that they are Tanzanians who were recruited by a Congolese living in Butembo to work in a gold mine in the Beni region but later found themselves being recruited as ADF fighters.

The army interrogation of the Tanzanian ADF fighters was ongoing, Mwalushay added.

He also said that it had been the first time Tanzanians were arrested in the Democratic Republic of the Congo for ADF rebel activities.

ADF rebels originated in Uganda in the 1990s with the intention of overthrowing the government there but were overpowered and they relocated to the jungles of the Democratic Republic of the Congo from where they attacked villages killing innocent civilians.