Rwanda said on Wednesday it would send some 800 troops to the Central African Republic next week, as part of an African Union (AU) force to help restore security.

Foreign Minister Louise Mushikiwabo told local radio: "Our troops will arrive in CAR in about ten days. AU asked us for a battalion which is about 800 soldiers."

Rwanda Tuesday began commemorations marking 20 years since its genocide, with a flame of remembrance due to make a nationwide tour ahead of the anniversary of the horrific events of 1994.

The flame was to be lit at the main genocide memorial in Kigali by Foreign Affairs Minister Louise Mushikiwabo, before embarking on a tour of towns and villages in the central African nation, ahead of a period of official mourning that begins on April 7, officials said.

A former head of Rwanda's external intelligence service was found strangled in a hotel in South Africa, where he has lived in exile for several years, his opposition party said Thursday.

"The Rwandan opposition is deeply saddened to announce the assassination of Colonel Patrick Karegeya in Johannesburg," the Rwanda National Congress (RNC) said in a statement. "His body was found in a hotel where he went for a meeting."

U.N. peacekeeping troops in Democratic Republic of Congo have launched an offensive against Rwandan ethnic Hutu rebels operating in the eastern part of the country, the U.N. command said Wednesday.

"MONUSCO's intervention brigade launched operations against the FDLR (Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda) yesterday, Tuesday, in Kalembe, in the Masisi region," the mission said on Twitter.

The U.N. peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo on Tuesday officially launched a surveillance drone in the strife-torn northeast in the first such move by the United Nations.

The Italian-made pilotless aircraft was launched at 12:01 pm (10:01 GMT) from the airport in Goma, capital of North Kivu province, at a media event attended by the chief of U.N. peacekeeping operations, Herve Ladsous and several diplomats.

Fighting between DR Congo's military and M23 rebels killed more than 900 combatants in the country's restive east before the insurgents were routed, a senior military official told AFP on Monday.

"Between May 20 and November 5, the... (army) had 201 dead and 680 wounded. On the M23 side, there were 721 dead and 543 captured, including 72 Rwandans and 28 Ugandans," said General Jean-Lucien Bahuma, a senior commander in the North Kivu region where the fighting took place.

A former guard of Rwandan President Paul Kagame, illegally arrested in Uganda where he was a refugee and sent back to Kigali, was charged on Wednesday with terrorism and murder.

Joel Mutabazi was forcibly returned to Rwanda by Ugandan police last month, a move condemned by the U.N. refugee agency and rights groups.

A French appeals court on Wednesday approved the extradition of two Rwandans wanted by Kigali for their alleged role in the 1994 genocide that claimed some 800,000 lives.

The ruling on Claude Muhayimana, 52, a French citizen since 2010, and Innocent Musabyimana, 41, is not final and can still be challenged.

Peace efforts between Democratic Republic of Congo and defeated M23 rebels will continue, Uganda's government said Tuesday, a day after the two sides failed to sign a much hoped for agreement.

The last-minute failure to sign a deal on Monday was a blow to international efforts to stabilize the African nation's conflict-prone east.

The government of the Democratic Republic of Congo and the defeated M23 rebels will Monday sign a peace deal, Uganda said, adding that it will not send the fleeing insurgents back across the border.

The M23 on Tuesday ended its 18-month insurgency after a resounding defeat at the hands of the armed forces of the Democratic Republic of Congo.