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Tanzanian authorities have detained Jamil Mukulu, the leader of the Congo-based Ugandan Islamist rebel group Allied Democratic Forces, in a major boost for the United Nations-backed operations to pacify the lawless region.

Mr. Mukulu, who is accused of commanding a spate of brutal attacks against civilians in both Uganda and Congo since the late 1990s, was arrested in Tanzania earlier this month after entering the country from eastern Congo, the Ugandan military said on Thursday.

Security then said Mukulu had more than 10 passports, used numerous pseudo names and doctored his appearances to evade capture. Uganda’s efforts to arrest Mukulu dates back to 2002 when the then army Chief of Staff, Maj. Gen. Nakibus Lakara, said the Government would issue an arrest warrant for him.

The Ugandan government has said that Mukulu’s organisation – the Alliance of Democratic Forces – National Army for the Liberation of Uganda (ADF-NALU) – is allied to elements of Somalia’s al Qaeda-linked al Shabaab insurgents.

The arrest brings to an end a long manhunt for one of the region’s most brutal rebel leaders. Ugandan and Tanzanian authorities must now devise ways of ensuring that Mr. Mukulu faces justice, without giving him a platform to turn himself into hero, especially within the region’s sizable Muslim community.