Monday 9 July 2012

Fooling us about Uganda’s neutrality in the Congo Conflict!!! Militarizing the Congo to help USA and allies to rape Congo resources: DRC troops, civilians fleeing to Uganda after rebel clashes


My analysis

You should not be fooled by Uganda’s seeming neutrality in the Congo conflict. Uganda is a client state of the USA and is part and parcel of the game of helping USA and her allies rape the mineral wealth of the DRC. Uganda and Rwanda are being used to fuel conflict and confusion in the DRC as American and Europeans Companies continue to rape the DRC of its resources. What the USA and her allies want is to make this look like an internal conflict in which the west has no part to play whatever.  Even the ICC works in the interest of the American New world order system and will fool you that it is trying to do something about the conflict. What the USA fears is peace in the Congo because this will mean that certain system of governance will come in place and will EXPOSE what is going on.

 

FIRST  SEE


THE THIRD WORLD AS A MODEL FOR THE NEW WORLD ORDER

http://www.antipasministries.com/html/file0000156.htm


CHRISTIANS IN AFRICA: AWAKE! America and the American Church Are Not Your Friends

http://www.antipasministries.com/html/file0000234.htm

The Curse of Gold: How Uganda and Rwanda violated Human Rights in order to facilitate the US and her allies to rape Mineral wealth in the DRC






USA client state exposed: Uganda police to Use Military tactics Against civilians




AFRICOM Year Two:Seizing The Helm Of Africa

http://www.antipasministries.com/other/article026.htm

http://watchmanafrica.blogspot.com/2010/02/africom-year-twoseizing-helm-of-africa.html




Obama sends 100 US troops to Uganda to fight LRA: It is not what you think!!!


 

Africa and the new world order system

http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=region&regionId=5


President Kagame’s Thorn in the fresh : Rwandan exiled General Faustin Kayumba Nyamwasa accuses Kagame of triggering the 1994 genocide




Kony will be brought to justice – AFRICOM: But why did you take all that long and why now????





600 Congolese troops flee to Uganda
2012-07-06
Kampala - A Ugandan army official says about 600 Congolese soldiers have sought refuge in Uganda after intense battles with rebels.


Ugandan army spokesperson Captain Peter Mugisa said the soldiers had been disarmed and were in the custody of the Ugandan military, which has deployed heavily along the Uganda-Democratic Republic of Congo border in the days since fighting between the Congolese army and M23 rebels intensified in DRC’s lawless east.


Mugisa said the soldiers did not want to go back home yet, fearing they might be massacred by the rebels they were sent to fight.


A UN report says the rebels are led by renegade General Bosco Ntaganda, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes.

 

DR Congo troops 'flee into Uganda' after rebel clashes

6 July 2012Last updated at 12:32 GMT

 

Some 600 Congolese soldiers have fled into Uganda, following clashes with rebels who have seized a border town.

The Ugandan military said the fleeing troops had been disarmed.

As the rebels took control of the Democratic Republic of Congo side of the town of Bunagana, an Indian peacekeeper was killed, the UN says.

M23 rebels loyal to Bosco Ntaganda, who is wanted for war crimes by the International Criminal Court, took up arms in April.

They defected from the army after pressure increased on the government to arrest Gen Ntaganda, when one of his former colleagues was convicted of recruiting child soldiers by the ICC.

Security sources have told the BBC's Ignatius Bahizi in Uganda that the M23 rebels control a 15km (10 mile) stretch of the border running south from the famous Virunga National Park, home to rare mountain gorillas.

  • Ugandan army spokesman Capt Peter Mugisa says the 600 Congolese soldiers are in the custody of the Ugandan military. He told the AP news agency they fear being massacred by the rebels if they return.

Ugandan residents of Bunagana have told the BBC that the Congolese soldiers have been moved to the town of Kisoro, which is about 8km from the border.

Senior M23 official Col Sultani Makenga told the BBC that the rebels had seized the Congolese side of the town early on Friday - information confirmed by residents of the Ugandan side of the town.

"The mutineers took control of the entire town. The entire population and the [Congolese] troops are in Uganda," a police source in the area told the AFP news agency.

Col Makenga said the rebels responded after they were attacked by government troops on Thursday.

Some 200,000 people have fled their homes since April, with about 20,000 crossing the border to Uganda and Rwanda.

A recent UN report has accused Rwanda of backing the rebels - Gen Ntaganda is an ethnic Tutsi, like the majority of Rwanda's leadership.

But Rwanda has vehemently denied the accusations.

Mineral-rich eastern DR Congo has suffered years of fighting since 1994, when more than a million Rwandan ethnic Hutus fled crossed the border following the genocide, in which some 800,000 people, mostly Tutsis, were slaughtered.

Rwanda has twice invaded its much larger neighbour, saying it was trying to take action against Hutu rebels based in DR Congo. Uganda also sent troops into DR Congo during the 1997-2003 conflict.

The current mutiny is being led by fighters from Gen Ntaganda's former rebel group the CNDP, which was integrated into the Congolese national army in 2009 as part of a peace deal.

Known as "the Terminator", Gen Ntaganda has fought for various militias over the years but has told the BBC he has no involvement in the recent army mutiny.

DRC troops, civilians fleeing to Uganda after rebel clashes

Latest update: 06/07/2012

http://www.france24.com/en/20120706-dr-congo-troops-fled-uganda-after-clashes-mutiny-rebels

 

Uganda's army said Friday they are trying to decide what to do with some 600 troops and more than 2,000 civilians who have fled the Democratic Republic of Congo following recent clashes with Congolese rebels over a border town there.

 

REUTERS - Rebels in Congo said on Friday they had seized the eastern town of Bunagana on the border with Uganda after days of fierce fighting with government troops during which a U.N. peacekeeper was killed and thousands of residents displaced.

More than 2,000 civilians had crossed the border into Uganda the past few days to escape the bloodshed, at least 2,200 more had been uprooted and 600 Congolese soldiers had also fled over the frontier, Ugandan Red Cross and military officials said.

Congo’s north Kivu province has been swept by violence since late March after hundreds of ex-rebels defected from the army in support of a rebellious general, Bosco Ntaganda, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court for suspected war crimes.

The mutiny risks dragging the vast, loosely governed central African state back into war and damaging fragile relations with Rwanda, which has repeatedly denied allegations that the rebels are receiving cross-border support.

The resurgence of fighting in eastern Congo has displaced over 200,000 people since April, according to U.N. estimates.

“The city of Bunagana and its surroundings are now under the control of our forces after a failed counter-offensive against our positions by the government troops,” said Colonel Makenga Sultani, coordinator of the so-called M23 movement.

In a statement, Sultani urged several thousand residents who had fled into Uganda to return home and the U.N. peacekeeping mission to remain impartial in the conflict.

A spokesman for MONUSCO, the U.N. mission in mineral-rich Congo, said an Indian U.N. peacekeeper was killed during heavy fighting on Thursday, but could not confirm whether the rebels had taken the town.

Officials of the government of the Democratic Republic of Congo was not immediately available for comment.

An official of Uganda Red Cross said that more than two thousand people had crossed the border into Uganda in the past few days to escape the intense fighting.

“It (the fighting) was only 40 meters away from our border so the people took off to come to the Ugandan side,” said Kevin Nabutuwa Busima, assistant director of disaster management for the Uganda Red Cross.

Nabutuwa said they received 1,765 new arrivals at the transit camp yesterday and 500 new arrivals on Friday.

“Two thousand-two hundred people are the border entry point on the Uganda side waiting to see how the situation looks in Congo before deciding whether to go back,” he added.

A Ugandan army officer told Reuters the 600 Congo government soldiers who had fled to Uganda had been “disarmed as required and we’re processing them for refugee status
“...Also there has been a dramatic surge in civilian refugees in the past few days,” Captain Peter Mugisha said.

Rwanda has denied allegations in a report by U.N. experts in June that provided the strongest evidence yet that officials of President Paul Kagame’s government were providing military and logistical support to armed groups in Congo.

The United States called on Rwanda to stop supporting armed rebel groups in Congo after the U.N. investigation implicated senior Kigali officials.

Congo President Joseph Kabila last week blamed the conflict on “dark forces, national and foreign” during a speech on national television, but did not mention Rwanda by name. Kabila called off annual independence day celebrations on June 30 as a mark of respect for the victims of the fighting.

 

 

Over 500 Congolese soldiers relocated to Kasese

http://www.newvision.co.ug/news/632772-over-500-congolese-soldiers-relocated-to-kasese.html

Publish Date: Jul 08, 2012

 

By John B. Thawite & agencies
 Over 500 Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (FARDC) soldiers have been relocated from Kisoro in South Western Uganda pending arrangements to return them back to their government.

“They have been re-located from Bunagana to Kasese where the facilities are relatively better that those of Bunagana,” the UPDF 2nd Division commander, Capt. Peter Mugisha, told New Vision Saturday evening

Quoting their commander, Major Ndinda Mpigiya, Capt. Mugisha said the soldiers were 508.

They fled into Uganda following the Friday clashes with the M23 rebels loyal to Bosco Ntaganda rebels who have since seized the border Congolese town of Bunagana.

During armed clashes, the M23 rebels disarmed the FARDC, who had been were deployed in the area.

As the rebels took control of the Democratic Republic of Congo side of the town of Bunagana, an Indian peacekeeper was killed, the UN says.

M23 rebels loyal to Bosco Ntaganda, who is wanted for war crimes by the International Criminal Court, took up arms in April.

They defected from the army after pressure increased on the government to arrest Gen Ntaganda, when one of his former colleagues was convicted of recruiting child soldiers by the ICC.

The M23 rebels are said to be in control a 15km (10 mile) stretch of the border running south from the famous Virunga National Park, home to rare mountain gorillas.

The Congolese soldiers were moved to the town of Kisoro, which is about 8km from the border before being relocated to Kasese yesterday(Saturday).

Some 200,000 people have fled their homes since April, with about 20,000 crossing the border to Uganda and Rwanda.

Mineral-rich eastern DR Congo has suffered years of fighting since 1994, when more than a million Rwandan ethnic Hutus fled crossed the border following the genocide, in which some 800,000 people, mostly Tutsis, were slaughtered.

Rwanda has twice invaded its much larger neighbour, saying it was trying to take action against Hutu rebels based in DR Congo. Uganda also sent troops into DR Congo during the 1997-2003 conflict.

The current mutiny is being led by fighters from Gen Ntaganda's former rebel group the CNDP, which was integrated into the Congolese national army in 2009 as part of a peace deal.

 Known as "the Terminator", Gen Ntaganda has fought for various militias over the years but has told the BBC he has no involvement in the recent army mutiny.

 

Uganda calls for crisis talks over DR Congo

http://www.monitor.co.ug/News/National/Uganda+calls+for+crisis+talks+over+DR+Congo/-/688334/1448804/-/uxre3k/-/index.html

Uganda yesterday announced it is convening an emergency meeting of eleven countries in the Great Lakes region on Wednesday, this week, to thrash out urgent measures of defusing the upsurge in fighting in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.

“We are telling the [warring] parties to have some patience and refrain [from further confrontations],” acting Foreign Affairs Minister Henry Oryem-Okello, who will chair the planned meeting in Addis Ababa, said by telephone.

Kampala presently chairs the 11-member International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR), founded in 2010, to prevent conflicts with potential for cross-border ramifications, while promoting sustainable regional peace, security and development.

Mr Oryem-Okello said Uganda has not taken any position on the latest Congo conflict because the situation is fluid, and an early pronouncement would not “help the process to find a lasting solution that we want to achieve on Wednesday”.

The Ethiopian capital will unusually host the ICGLR Council of Ministers’ gathering because its members are expected to convene there, beginning tomorrow, for a scheduled Inter-Ministerial meeting of the African Union - ahead of the continental bloc’s Heads of States and Governments summit later at the weekend.

  • The intensified search for a peaceful solution comes in the wake of calls in Kinshasa by Defence Minister, Mr Alexander Tambo, for the arrest of renegade Gen. Bosco Ntaganda, separately indicted by the International Criminal Court, and other renegade military generals accused of masterminding a mutiny in the Congolese forces that gave birth to the M23 rebel group.

Separately, the M23 leadership, apparently buoyed by the Friday success of over-running Bunagana, asked for talks announcing that they would hold fire if Kinshasa responded favourably.

Congolese Defence chief Tambo in a statement said Ntaganda and 13 of his deputies had been dismissed from the army and “the defence and security services are ordered to urgently re-launch an operation to find and arrest (them)”, Al Jazeera reported yesterday.

The Great Lakes’ grouping has been scrambled into action after the resurgent M23 rebel group, reportedly under the overall command of Sultan Makenga, but comprising mainly former National Congress for the Defence of the People (CNDP) insurgent fighters, last Friday wrested Bunagana, a town vital for custom revenue collection and immigration control, from Kinshasa government’s control.

DR Congo President Joseph Kabila’s government, the UN and humanitarian agencies have accused Rwanda of fomenting trouble by supporting the M23 rebels, allegations Kigali has consistently denied.

Some 646 armed Congolese soldiers, outgunned during the Friday onslaught, fled to Kisoro District, opening the floodgate to thousands of their defenceless civilian counterparts to rush for sanctuary in frontier districts to Uganda’s west.

The soldiers have been disarmed and relocated to Kasese town ahead of an expected visit and address to them today by their country’s ambassador to Kampala, Mr Charles Okoto.

This newspaper has been told Mr Oryem-Okello and Mr Okoto met on Saturday to find a mutually agreeable mechanism of repatriating the stranded Congolese soldiers.

“We do not want them (the soldiers) here longer and later it is misunderstood,” said the acting Foreign Affairs minister. “The faster we repatriate them, the better.”

Representatives of the Congolese embassy were not available when this newspaper sought to speak to them on the volatile situation in eastern part of their country, made worse by reports intimated by Ugandan intelligence officials that a new rebel group had emerged in DRC’s Ituri province.

Observers see eastern DRC, where both Uganda and Rwanda say dissident elements – the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) rebels and the Interahamwe genocidaires, respectively – hibernate, is seen as an incubator of regional instability since much of its eastern area is loosely governed, and mostly by warlords.
Armies of both Uganda and Rwanda invaded DRC as erstwhile allies during the 1997-2003 war, which claimed 5 million lives according to estimates by some international NGOs, before turning guns on each other in multiple clashes in Kisangani.
tbutagira@ug.nationmedia.com


Who are the M23 rebels in DR Congo?


http://www.monitor.co.ug/News/National/Who+are+the+M23+rebels+in+DR+Congo+/-/688334/1448808/-/vld8aiz/-/index.html

 
To the layman the emergence of the eastern DR Congo armed group M23 might be seen as of little significance - just another band of gunmen controlling a few square kilometres of turf in a country the size of western Europe.

“This [M23] is a new configuration and a serious development. More than 200,000 people have been displaced since April because of M23,” Rupert Colville, a Geneva-based spokesperson for the UN High Commission for Human Rights (UNCHR), told IRIN.

In late March 2012 Gen. Bosco Ntaganda, a senior officer in the DR Congo national army (FARDC), led a mutiny of 300-600 soldiers following discontent over unpaid wages and poor living conditions.

Ntaganda (known locally as the “terminator”) was indicted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) in 2006 for war crimes. On May 3, Col. Sultani Makenga began an apparently separate revolt.

Both men were formerly part of Gen. Laurent Nkunda’s National Congress for the Defence of the People (CNDP), a former DR Congo militia backed by neighbouring Rwanda, before it was integrated into the FARDC as part of the March 23, 2009 peace agreement.

Denial

Makenga has reportedly denied that the two revolts were coordinated or connected. However, analysts suggest the mutinies may have been sparked by indications that DR Congo President Joseph Kabila was about to honour his obligations to the ICC and arrest Ntaganda. The UN Security Council has condemned the mutinies.

Colville said M23, which takes its name from the date of the 2009 peace agreement, has a senior command with “substantial allegations” of atrocities against it. He said that was why UNCHR Navi Pillay took “the unusual step of naming names… She is flagging the dangers of M23.”

In a UN radio podcast entitled ‘UN human rights chief fears more rapes, killings in Congo by M23’, Colville said M23 “is really a reassembling - at least at the leadership level - of very well-known human rights abusers in the Congo over the past decade… quite a collection of notorious killers.”

The track record of M23 commanders included the use of child soldiers (recently 20 child soldiers had been rescued by FARDC troops from M23 senior commander Col. Innocent Zimurinda’s unit), and Colville feared the worst human rights abuses by M23 were just “around the corner”.

A January 2012 report by the UN Secretary-General on the UN Stabilisation Mission in DRC (MONUSCO) said: “The majority of acts of sexual violence in eastern DR Congo are committed by armed groups, notably FDLR [Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda - established by perpetrators of the 1994 Rwandan genocide], as well as by elements integrated into FARDC, including from CNDP and other former Congolese armed groups.”

Thierry Vircoulon, International Crisis Group project director for Central Africa, told IRIN: “Everyone is worried about M23 because of its leaders and their involvement in killings in the past - and that there is no access to these areas [controlled by M23] at the moment.”

Among those named by Pillay are: Makenga, a former CNDP commander and linked to the 2008 Kiwandja massacre of 67 civilians; Col Baudouin Ngaruye, believed to be involved in the 2009 Shalio massacre of 139 civilians while a (FARDC) commander and previously of the CNDP;

Others are Col. Innocent Zimurinda - alleged to have “command responsibility for the Kiwandja and Shalio massacres”; and Col. Innocent Kaina alleged to have been involved in a string of human rights abuses in Ituri and Orientale provinces in 2004 when a member - along with Ntaganda - of Thomas Lubanga Dyilo’s Union des Patriotes Congolais (UPC) / Forces Patriotique pour la Libération du Congo (FPLC).

Lubanga was the first person convicted of a war crime by the ICC for “conscripting and enlisting” child soldiers.

The March 23, 2009 peace accord ushered in a few years of relative stability for North and South Kivu provinces and saw thousands of CNDP combatants integrated into the FARDC. Most of M23’s commanders were members of CNDP, which was sponsored by neighbouring Rwanda to fight a proxy war in the DRC against the FDLR.

However, Nkunda refused to allow his soldiers to participate in MONUC’s (predecessor of MONUSCO) Disarmament, Demobilisation and Reintegration programme and as a compromise permitted the integration of his troops into the FARDC, with the proviso that there would be no retraining or relocation outside the Kivu provinces. Nkunda is now in Rwanda.

An analyst who declined to be named said the integration of the CNDP militia into FARDC resulted in a parallel chain of command and their demand to remain in the Kivu provinces can be seen as fulfilling their perceived role as “protectors of the Banyamulenge” - Rwandan Tutsi migrants who arrived in the DRC around the 1880s and are recognized as Congolese citizens.

“What happened with the CNDP’s integration in 2009 is the way to read the crisis now,” Vircoulon said. “The [CNDP] military hierarchy was never broken down - and we’re going back to the situation of a few years ago and the story is repeating itself.”

The M23 pedigree of CNDP has seen Human Rights Watch claim in a 4 June 2012 report entitled Rwanda Should Stop Aiding War Crimes Suspect, that the new armed group is cut from the same cloth as the CNDP and that Rwanda was actively assisting M23 as it did CNDP. This has been consistently denied by the Rwandan government of President Paul Kagame.

A report by the UN Group of Experts for the DR Congo is scheduled for imminent release, although a section dealing with allegations of Rwandan involvement with M23 is likely to be delayed after a veto by a Security Council member on its publication.

‘No political will’
A 2012 report compiled by a host of international and Congolese NGOs entitled ‘Taking a Stand on Security Sector Reform’, sees eastern DRC’s cycles of violence as a consequence of “a lack of political will” by the DRC government for security sector reform (SSR) and “poor coordination” of SSR by the country’s international partners.

The report said that between 2006 and 2010 official DR Congo development aid for conflict, peace and security was US$530 million, or about 6 percent of total aid, excluding debt relief.

“Spending directly on security system management and reform is even lower - $84.79 million over the same period, just over 1 percent.”
The human, political and financial cost of the DR Congo again collapsing back into war is difficult to fathom.

A 2011 report by the Group for Research and Information on Peace and Security (GRIP) entitled ‘Small Arms in Eastern Congo, A Survey on the Perception of Insecurity’ found FARDC was the second greatest threat to insecurity, after armed groups.

The report by local and international NGOs (Taking a Stand on SSR) said the “dominant” view that effective SSR was too dangerous to contemplate had to be weighed up against maintaining the status quo, and that “the most significant risk of renewed conflict comes from within the Congolese security services itself, particularly the FARDC.”

“SSR would no doubt bring short-term pain, but the long-term risk of inaction is far greater. The human, political and financial cost of the DRC again collapsing back into war is difficult to fathom,” the report said.

 

60 trailers stuck in Kisoro as rebels push for Ishasha
Between yesterday night and morning M23 rebels under the over-all command of indicted Congolese war criminal Gen. Bosco Ntaganda moved to put more areas in eastern DR Congo under their control.
Residents of Kisoro District in Uganda said they heard shooting as rebels extended their area of control which now stretches towards Ishasha border town in Kanungu District.

“Rebel controlled area has extended towards Ishasha in Kanungu. There were gunshots last night and now refugees from that area are entering Kisoro,” the Resident District Commissioner, Hajj Ahmed Doka, said.

After over-running Bunagana border town on Friday, the rebels appeared to be making a pincer movement to Ishasha border area. Hajj Doka said M23 rebels are now in charge of Bunagana Town on the Congo side.

“They are manning the border on the Congo side but they do not levy anything because they don’t have what to use,’ he said.

Hajj Doka said 60 trailers loaded with merchandise destined for Goma Town, located over 70 kilometres from the border, are stranded in Kisoro Town. He said the trucks were re-routed by Uganda Revenue Authority to go through Bunagana but no transaction is taking place there because the Congo side is manned by rebels.

“We are in a dilemma with 60 trucks. The Ssaza ground is full, others are parked in town,” Hajj Doka said. He said the alternative route to Goma is through Kyanika, the Rwanda-DR Congo border. But it could take a while for revenue authorities and other players to re-route the trucks.

The RDC said while it is possible to re-route the trucks, and this option is being explored, traders and clearing agents are reluctant to use Kyanika because of the serious scrutiny at the Rwanda-DRC Congo border.

“If you registered that you are carrying this kind of goods, they (rebels) must verify it, this is what the traders are fearing,” Hajj Doka said. The RDC said fish dealers have begun using the route, but dealers in other goods are reluctant expecting that situation at Bunagana will return to normal. Trucks are coming from Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania.

Uganda’s 2nd Division spokesperson, Capt. Peter Mugisa, said the military has not made any special deployment on Uganda’s border with DR Congo. “The situation on Uganda side is calm. There has always been 63 battalion in Kisoro, we have not made any special deployment,” Capt.Mugisa said.
Reported by Alfred Tumushabe & Robert Muhereza

Uganda overwhelmed with high congolese refugee influx

http://www.monitor.co.ug/News/National/Uganda+overwhelmed+with+high+congolese+refugee+influx/-/688334/1448810/-/11q82en/-/index.html

The high influx of refugees fleeing fighting in eastern DR Congo into Uganda has forced government to change its contingency plan and also called for a sanitation emergency plan, a senior official has said.
The commissioner for refugees in the Office of the Prime Minster yesterday said the southwestern border was overwhelmed by the number of refugees.

“Our contingency plan for the southwestern border was looking at 30,000 refugees this year, focusing on food, shelter, medical care and transportation, among others. But now they are 26,500 mid way the year and more are still coming.”

“We call upon government and international organisations for more funding,” Mr Kazungu added. The head of communications at the Uganda Red Cross Society (URCS), Ms Catherine Ntabadde, said thousands of refugees have been flowing into the country since the beginning of the week and the areas they are moving to lack enough sanitation facilities.

“Red Cross has since Thursday last week registered 5,059 Congolese refugees. Nyakabande Transit Camp already has 12,460 refugees. Normally when people come in such big numbers, they compromise the sanitation of the area,” Ms Ntabade said during a phone interview with this newspaper.

United Nations High Commission for Refugees and URCS have already provided relief items. “Red Cross’s non-food items are targeting 1,000 most vulnerable refugees such as pregnant women, disabled, children and elderly. We are also strengthening sanitation at the camp in Bunagana where we are providing 20 sanitation kits each kit comprises of pangas, wheel barrows, pix axes, hoes and spades,” Ms Ntabade said.

She said URCS would also provide 15 mobile toilets and three water tanks of 10,000 liters each to prevent disease outbreaks among the communities at Bunagana boarder.”
On Saturday, more than 600 Congolese soldiers and policemen who fled into Uganda after M23 rebel forces of Gen. Bosco Ntaganda overran their battalion in Rutshuru Province, were relocated to Kasese District.

UPDF 2nd Division spokesperson, Capt. Peter Mugisa, said Kisoro District where they had settled had no facilities.

This latest fighting comes months after the DR Congo Electoral Commission declared President Joseph Kabila the winner of a disputed election.

, having garnered 49 percent of the votes cast against opposition politician Etienne Tshisekedi’s 32 percent. Violent protests broke out mostly in eastern DRC which has forced many Congolese to seek refuge in Uganda.

They claim that the local militias ask them which candidate they voted for and their responses at times lead to violence from the local militias and fighters operating in eastern DRC.

According to UNHCR, the new wave of refugees includes many of the returning civilians who had returned to DRC between 2010 and 2011.

But because of the upheavals in Congo, they have been forced to return, frustrated UNHCR’s repatriation efforts.
editorial@ug.nationmedia.com