Refugee women from the Democratic Republic of Congo wash clothing at a camp. (Photo Courtesy Judith Basutama/IRIN)

As the rape and death toll mount in military offensives against Hutu rebels in eastern Congo, a key leader of the military campaign is forming his own paramilitary group, the United Nations has said.

Nearly a year after being installed in a senior position in the Congolese armed forces, former rebel-general Bosco Ntaganda has teamed up with the Front for the Liberation and Emancipation of the Congo (FLEC).

The group is consolidating control over regions of eastern Congo, particularly Masisi territory in North Kivu province.

Unlike some other rebel groups in the Congo -- including Ntaganda's Tutsi-led National Congress for the People's Defence (CNDP) who wreaked havoc in the country last year -- FLEC does not appear to be built along ethnic lines.

It remains unclear whether FLEC will be an insurgency or just a way to make more money, but it is the latest sign that the CNDP is breaking up, and that Congo's army is unravelling in its yearlong war against Rwandan Hutu rebels.

Dissatisfied elements

"It appears to incorporate other dissatisfied elements associated with some Mai-Mai armed groups," said spokesperson Jean-Paul Dietrich.

"According to local sources, FLEC was established because of the reported refusal of pro-Nkunda elements and the former political leadership of the party to associate CNDP with the reported Coalition pour la protection et la promotion du Congo (CPPC)."

Ntaganda, who became military commander of the CNDP at the beginning of the year when its charismatic leader Laurent Nkunda was arrested by Rwanda, was supposed to lead the group into integration with the Congolese national army, along with an assortment of rebel groups and splinter factions.

In the United Nations-backed offensive against the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda -- Hutu rebels accused of orchestrating the 1994 Rwandan genocide -- Ntaganda is accused of playing a senior role.

In South Kivu, where the bulk of the fighting is focused, Ntaganda's CNDP lieutenants are doing the finding and the killing.

But now, he and other CNDP officers are spending their time organising FLEC.

They already control some of North Kivu's most fertile areas, including large swathes of Masisi territory.

"The people are forced to pay exorbitant taxes," said the United Nations this week. "Officials justify them by the need to assist the war-wounded ex-CNDP."