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A fugitive Congolese warlord turned himself in at the U.S. Embassy in Rwanda on Monday (March 18) and asked to be transferred to the International Criminal Court (ICC).

Bosco Ntaganda, nicknamed "The Terminator", faces war crimes charges racked up during years of rebellion.

By surrendering in Kigali, where an embassy official said staff were "shocked" by his sudden arrival, Ntaganda ended a career that saw him fight as a rebel and government soldier on both sides of the Rwanda-Congo border during nearly 20 years of conflict in Africa's Great Lakes region.

Ntaganda's whereabouts had been unknown after hundreds of his fighters fled into Rwanda or surrendered to U.N. peacekeepers at the weekend, following their defeat by a rival faction of M23 rebels in the mineral-rich eastern Congo.

Ntaganda faces charges of conscripting child soldiers, murder, ethnic persecution, sexual slavery and rape during the 2002-2003 conflict