International pressure has led to this week’s capture this week of a militia leader accused of involvement in mass rapes in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Human Rights Watch said on Thursday.

“This shows that when there is international attention and pressure, the UN Peacekeeping Forces and the Congolese government will act,” Anneke van Woudenberg of London-based Human Rights Watch said.

UN peacekeeping force MONUSCO, in a joint effort with Congolese forces FARDC, captured Lieutenant Colonel Mayele on Tuesday. Mayele was named in a UN report last month as the leader of a coalition of militiamen that attacked the town of Luvungi on July 30 and held it until August 3rd, raping at least 303 people.

Mayele belongs to a militia named Mai Mai Cheka and led a coalition of rebel groups in eastern Congo.

The UN peacekeeping force MONUSCO, the world's largest UN peacekeeping mission, was criticised for failing to prevent the mass rape, which took place just 30 km from a UN base.

The arrest coincides with a visit to Congo by the UN's special representative on sexual violence, Margot Wallstrom, who has called Congo the rape capital of the world.

While Van Woudenberg praised Mayele’s capture, she warned that “the work is far from done.”

“This (capture) shows that the UN Peacekeeping forces can do their job if they so wish. Now they have to make sure that other perpetrators are captured, like General Basco,” Van Woudenberg said.

She was referring to Bosco Ntaganda, a former DRC rebel leader indicted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for war crimes. Ntaganda, as recent as this week, claims that he is commanding soldiers in the UN-backed military operations to oust Hutu rebels in his country.

Congo's eastern provinces are haunted by Rwandan Hutu FDLR insurgents and Mai Mai militia who have lingered in the vast and minerals rich zone since Congo's 1998-2003 war.

Rape has been increasingly used by various groups of fighters in eastern Congo to intimidate, punish and control the population, especially in the mining areas.