Ugandan Military Requests to Pursue Dissidents in DR Congo's Territory
The New Times , 15 July 2012
Capt. Peter Mugisha, the second division army spokesman, told Xinhua by telephone that with the current turmoil in eastern DRC after the M23 rebels overran the Congolese military, the ADF is likely to take advantage of the situation. "With the problems the Congolese government currently has with M23 rebels and ineffective administration in eastern DRC, we believe they can't manage to defeat ADF. They must accept us to join them to eliminate this terrorist group with the links to al Qaida," said Mugisha. "We are calling upon the Congolese authorities to cooperate with us to uproot the ADF. They are not only a threat to Uganda but to them and the whole region," he said.
The call comes barely a week after M23 rebels overran several army units in North Kivu Province, forcing over 600 Congolese soldiers and thousands of refugees to flee into western Uganda. At least over 16,000 Congolese refugees have been forced into western Uganda as the result of intense fighting between the Congolese troops and M23 rebels. The Ugandan government on Wednesday repatriated the Congolese soldiers who fled the rebel fire last week.
The troops were handed over to Jean Pierre Massala, the Congolese deputy Ambassador to Uganda. "We handed back the soldiers to the Congolese government and released all their weapons. They are supposed to defend their nation," said Mugisha.
The M23 is largely comprised of former rebels of CNDP, a group that was integrated into the Congolese army in 2009, as part of a peace deal. The soldiers began to defect in March to form the newest rebel group in the eastern part of the country.Uganda called for regional emergency meeting on Wednesday on the sidelines of the ongoing African Union summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to end the conflict.
Xinhua
UPDF deploys heavily on Uganda Congo boarder
Publish Date: Jul 16, 2012
Ugandan
security forces have deployed heavily on the eastern border with Congo, following heavy fighting between rebels
and the Congo
government forces.
By
press time, business at the border town of Bunagana was at a standstill as traffic was
not allowed to proceed beyond the border point. Only displaced civilians were
allowed to enter Uganda.
Congo’s North Kivu
province has been swept by violence since March, after hundreds of 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.
Security
agencies said the army was partnering with the counterterrorism Police unit to
ensure that the violence does not spill into Uganda. By 8:00am, yesterday,
heavily armed Ugandan security officials were patrolling a stretch of about
15km from Nteko, through Bwindi forest to Mugahinga National Park.
In
Kisoro town, however, it was business as usual, although residents kept their
ears glued to radio bulletins.
The
rebels in Congo had by
Friday seized the eastern town of Bunagana
after days of heavy fighting.
According
to agencies, a UN peacekeeper was killed and more than 2,000 refugees have
crossed into Uganda
the past few days.
Over 600 Congo
government soldiers who fled to Uganda
have been “disarmed”, according Major Charles Mukasa of 63rd Battalion.
“We have disarmed them and arrangements to move them to Kisoro
district are under away tonight”.
Mukasa
affirmed that UPDF was ready to defend the country, adding that they would not
take anything for granted.
“Business
is not going on until assessment is done by joint security agencies to
ascertain safety of people.
The
border will be closed for a while,” Mukasa said.
Sources
also said they were watching out for Allied Democratic Forces and Interahamwe
rebel groups not to use this opportunity to enter Uganda.
Both
security minister Mukasa Mulira and army spokesperson Col. Felix Kulayigye
could not be reached for comment as their phones were off.
The
rebels risk dragging the vast, loosely governed central African state back into
civil war. An official from the Uganda Red Cross said Uganda was consequently dealing with
an upsurge in the number of refugees.
“It
(the fighting) was only 40 metres away from our border so the people crossed to
Uganda,”
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 on Thursday and 500
new arrivals on Friday.
Congo
President Joseph Kabila last week blamed the conflict on “dark forces, national
and foreign” during a speech on national television. Kabila called off annual
independence day celebrations on June 30 as a mark of respect for the victims
who had suffered bloodshed.
UN, Congolese troops bombard rebel positions
UNITED Nations (UN) and Congolese troops yesterday bombarded rebel positions
in the country’s strife-torn eastern region of Nord-Kivu as mutineers said they
had no plans to attack the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo city of Goma.
The M23 mutineers, who defected from the army in April, seized several towns in the eastern DR Congo in recent days, forcing troops and civilians over the Ugandan border and prompting fears of an attack on Goma.
“Our mission is not to go to Goma. We are strong but we are also disciplined,” M23 spokesman Vianney Kazarama said.
The Agence France Presse (AFP) reported that three helicopters belonging to the UN mission in DR Congo, Monusco, and two gunships of the DR Congo army (FARDC) were seen and explosions were heard around the towns of Nkokwe and Bukima, where rebels from the M23 group are thought to have some positions. Officials from the UN and the army confirmed to AFP that attacks were under way.
The UN stationed tanks around Goma on Wednesday and UN chief Ban Ki-moon urged the presidents of DR Congo and Rwanda to “defuse tensions” over the rebellion in the resource-rich but war-plagued central African nation.
The mutineers had seized a number of towns along the Ugandan border, including Rutshuru, before withdrawing over the weekend from all but Bunagana, a town on the border with Uganda.
M23 - named after a failed 2009 peace deal signed on March 23 - is led by Bosco Ntaganda, a man nicknamed the “Terminator” who is wanted for war crimes by the International Criminal Court.
UN, Congolese troops bombard rebel positions
The M23 mutineers, who defected from the army in April, seized several towns in the eastern DR Congo in recent days, forcing troops and civilians over the Ugandan border and prompting fears of an attack on Goma.
“Our mission is not to go to Goma. We are strong but we are also disciplined,” M23 spokesman Vianney Kazarama said.
The Agence France Presse (AFP) reported that three helicopters belonging to the UN mission in DR Congo, Monusco, and two gunships of the DR Congo army (FARDC) were seen and explosions were heard around the towns of Nkokwe and Bukima, where rebels from the M23 group are thought to have some positions. Officials from the UN and the army confirmed to AFP that attacks were under way.
The UN stationed tanks around Goma on Wednesday and UN chief Ban Ki-moon urged the presidents of DR Congo and Rwanda to “defuse tensions” over the rebellion in the resource-rich but war-plagued central African nation.
The mutineers had seized a number of towns along the Ugandan border, including Rutshuru, before withdrawing over the weekend from all but Bunagana, a town on the border with Uganda.
M23 - named after a failed 2009 peace deal signed on March 23 - is led by Bosco Ntaganda, a man nicknamed the “Terminator” who is wanted for war crimes by the International Criminal Court.
Ugandan Journalists held in DR Congo
Publish Date: Jul 16, 2012
Government
authorities in the Democratic Republic of Congo have arrested three Ugandan
journalists for allegedly entering the country without proper documents and
permission.
The
journalists, Sudhir Byaruhanga of NTV, James Akena, a photographer with Reuters
and Godfrey Mbandiriya, a cameraman were arrested on Saturday shortly after
they entered the war-torn country to continue with their reporting.
Kisoro
Resident District Commissioner, Hajji Musa Doka told this reporter that the
journalists on their way to Goma, a regional city in North
Kivu province.
"They
passed by my office and made it clear that they wanted to go to Goma where the
war attention is going on and i just wished them well, but now i hear they were
arrested by the Congolese Army immediately after they entered the
country," Doka said.
Goma
is currently the center of fighting between government forces supported by UN
peacekeepers, and the M23 rebels loyal to renegade rebel leader Bosco
Ntanganda.
Doka, however, did not explain the
circumstances and actual location of their arrest.
When contacted both Major Charles Mukasa, the
commanding officer of the 63rd battalion based in Kisoro, and Capt Peter
Mugisa, the second division army spokesperson, said they had heard about the arrest
but they did not have details.
"We
also got information that the Ugandan journalists were under arrest but
currently we don't have the details," Capt Mugisa said.
Efforts
to get information from the Congo
was futile as no one was risking to give information to any journalist at
Bunagana.
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