Uganda and DR Congo Troubles Continue

11 September, 2007

Uganda has denied massing troops on the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo, as revealed over the past days by Congolese military sources to Radio Okapi of the United Nations Mission in DR-Congo (MONUC).

“It is completely not true that we have deployed in the said areas at a time where the two countries are engaged in talks. We are simply monitoring our borders because some indisciplined Congolese soldiers have attacked the Ugandan territory in the last month”,

Uganda’s military spokesman Major Felix Kulayigye told Reuters. At a summit on Saturday in Arusha, in northern Tanzania, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni and his Congolese counterpart Joseph Kabila agreed to end their border territory dispute and crate a common front against attempts to destabilise east DR-Congo, where UN peacekeepers are attempting to preserve a shaky cease-fire between rebels and regular forces.

Based on the Arusha accord, all armed movements of Ugandan origin will leave Congolese territory within 90 days and Uganda will have to withdraw its troops still present in the Mahagi territory, a few dozen kilometres from the border.

According to Radio Okapi, the Ugandan troops occupied some areas along the border, such as Kolokoto, a fishing village 54km from Mahagi, straight after Congolese forces left the area. The MONUC military spokesman, Major Gabriel de Brosses, told MISNA from Kinshasa that he had no elements to confirm the troop movements.

Incidents multiplied in the past months between the Ugandan and Congolese armed forces in the Lake Albert area, according to analysts, over the strong progress achieved in the oil sector by companies operating in Ugandan territory, accused by Congolese authorities of continuous border trespassing.

The Rest @ MISNA