The army of the Democratic Republic of Congo has suspended 12 of its senior officers over incidents of mass rape last November.
The UN gave the country an ultimatum last month, saying it would suspend cooperation with brigades unless action was taken against those involved.
"The commanding officers and deputy commanding officers of two units, as well as the commanding officers of eight other units, have been suspended and put at the disposal of the military prosecutor," the Reuters news agency quotes spokesperson, Kieran Dwyer.
"It is a signal of the commitment of the Congolese authorities, but we need them to follow through and hold accountable those who carried out these terrible crimes," he told the AFP.
The two brigades concerned are accused by the UN of having committed at least 126 rapes in the city of Minova, while fleeing from advancing rebels.
The BBC was told by soldiers that senior officers had ordered the rapes to be carried out.
"We'd lost all hope. We weren't thinking like human beings," a soldier told BBC Newsnight.
"It's true that we raped here... You see her, you take her away and have your way with her. Sometimes you kill her, when you finish raping her then you'll kill the child. You rape and carry on," another soldier said.
A staff sergeant said they were ordered to rape by superiors:
"The commander gave us an order and he was the one who started to do it."
On Thursday, the G8 announced a historic pledge to fight the use of rape as a weapon of war, promising to provide $35m (£22.7m) to deal with the problem.
