MUST READ
The US and 5 Million Deaths in The Congo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wHduddO7ZaU
Congo: Chaos By Design
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QiJ0JC3LzEo
Ebola outbreaks in DRC are ploys by USA and its Client states to Hide the Neo-liberal plunder of Congo Resources and the Consequent Human rights violations: In Uganda Museveni is using Ebola to Hide his Human Rights Violations and Rumors about the death of his brother: Uganda's Ebola death toll rises to 12: Ebola deaths shoot up to 21
https://watchmanafrica.blogspot.com/2022/09/ebola-outbreaks-in-drc-are-ploys-usa.html
The bitter truth finally comes out: Rwanda attacked Congo troops, backed rebels – UN experts
https://watchmanafrica.blogspot.com/2022/08/the-bitter-truth-finally-comes-out.html
No Rivalry between Uganda and Rwanda: There is simply connivance to help imperialists loot Mineral resources in DR Congo
https://watchmanafrica.blogspot.com/2022/07/no-rivalry-between-uganda-and-rwanda.html
DR Congo accuses Uganda’s Army of helping M23 rebels to capture Bunagana border town :Congo MPs vow to halt UPDF operations against ADF
https://watchmanafrica.blogspot.com/2022/06/dr-congo-accuses-ugandas-army-of.html
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
http://watchmanafrica.blogspot.com/2012/07/fooling-us-about-ugandas-neutrality-in.html
No more Rwandans, let's go and sort out Kagame: Thousands in anti-Rwanda rally in eastern DR Congo city: UK forced to cancel deportation flight to Rwanda after European court ruling
https://watchmanafrica.blogspot.com/2022/06/no-more-rwandans-lets-go-and-sort-out.html
Congo turns heat on Uganda over M23 rebels
https://www.monitor.co.ug/uganda/news/national/congo-turns-heat-on-uganda-over-m23-rebels-4006782
A group of Congolese parliamentarians and civil society activists
have petitioned President Felix Tshisekedi to sever diplomatic relations
with Uganda, accusing it of supporting advancing M23 rebels.
They
also want Kinshasa to terminate the year-old joint military offensive by
Forces Armées de la République Démocratique du Congo (FARDC) and Uganda
People’s Defence Forces (UPDF), code-named Shujaa, launched last
November to annihilate the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) rebels.
In Kampala, State Minister for International Relations, Mr Henry Oryem
Okello, dismissed the claims that Uganda was involved in subversion
against Tshisekedi’s government as “hogwash, rubbish” and unsupported
with evidence.
“The allegations are false. That is hogwash, rubbish!
There is no iota of evidence,” he said yesterday, challenging the
accusers to produce any incriminating evidence against Uganda.
Arguing
that a peaceful Congo is beneficial to Uganda, minister Oryem-Okello
added: “Those (accusers) are attention seekers. They should do some
research and bring evidence … Uganda doesn’t support M23 (rebels).
Uganda is seeking total peace in eastern DRC.”
The adverse naming of Kampala comes months after Congo cut diplomatic ties with Rwanda it accuses of aiding M23, expelled its ambassador and stopped RwandAir, the country’s national carrier, from DRC airspace. Kigali denies allegations of any machinations.
Highly-placed Uganda government and security sources, speaking on
condition of anonymity due to sensitivity of the matter, said Kampala
had been briefed that Kinshasa was contemplating similar actions,
including blocking Uganda Airlines’ lucrative flights there.
The
flare up in violence has stalled the upgrade to bitumen of 223
kilometres of roads linking Beni, Goma and Butembo in eastern DRC, 10
months after the governments of Congo and Uganda handed over the works
to Ugandan construction firm, Dott Services. It is unclear if the
company is being paid after placing equipment on site during the
December 2021 launch.
This publication understands that the $330
million project, to be bankrolled by Uganda, separately encountered
unexpected headwinds following a last-minute demand by some officials in
Kinshasa that Dott Services pays taxes and sub-contracts the
engineering works, fully or partially, to a Congolese company.
There were other adverse developments too. The capture by M23 in July of Bunagana, a major customs point on Congo side, alongside a ban by the rebels on cross-border commerce, has left particularly Ugandan exporters counting losses yet DRC offers Uganda the biggest market share in the region.
But this economic fortune orbited in the risk zone following a
whirlwind of activities in Congo on Monday marked by public
pronouncements and street protests in Beni City where demonstrators
carried placards jointly denouncing President Museveni and his Rwandan
counterpart Paul Kagame for their alleged support for M23 rebels.
Mr
Pepin Kavota, president of the civil society in Beni, said “on the other
side in Rutshuru, Uganda is helping the M23 rebels alongside Rwanda,
but when you come here in the Beni territory, there is some kind of
hypocrisy”.
“It is on that basis that we say that our country must
end the diplomatic relations not only with Rwanda, but also with
Uganda,” Politico Magazine quoted Mr Kavota as having said.
The uproar in Congo comes a fortnight before members of the United Nations Security Council Sanctions Committee on DRC are expected to visit for first-hand assessment of the situation on the ground. The snowballing violence in eastern Congo, where the world body runs its largest peace mission, gained global traction after eight UN peacekeepers perished in March, this year, when a helicopter carrying them to an attack zone came down.
Government officials briefed on the planned visit said the UNSC
members will establish whether states neighbouring Congo are complying
with, and have not breached, any sanctions regime.
Resolution 1533
(2004) obliges UN member states, particularly those neighbouring Congo,
not to permit their territories to be used for transit/supply of arms to
DRC or for sanctioned individuals to travel and enforce seizure or
freezing of assets of such persons, prohibit their airspaces to
aircrafts used in abuse of the sanctions, and ensure no transportation
violations by neighbours to Ituri and Kivu provinces of Congo.
We were unable to confirm reports that a team of UN experts also
planned a trip to independently investigate the accusation levelled by
DRC against Uganda and Rwanda, which has separately claimed that
Kinshasa is harbouring subversive elements against Kigali.
Sources
briefed on the regional security situation said Congo’s suspicion
against Uganda rose after Kampala signed a military cooperation with
Kigali in May, this year, under which Rwanda reportedly established
intelligence coordination presence at the headquarters of Uganda’s
Chieftaincy of Military Intelligence, Mbarara and Kisoro, a Ugandan town
bordering DRC.
One of the key Rwandan officials involved in the
coordination arrangement was Emmanuel Ruzindana, then a director of
operations in the country’s military intelligence directorate, whom
President Kagame on September 29 promoted to a Colonel and deployed as
his country’s military attache to Uganda.
Negotiations of the military cooperation were spearheaded by Uganda
Chief of Military Intelligence (CMI), Maj Gen James Birungi, and his
Rwandan counterpart, Brig Gen Vincent Nyakarundi, as part of the broader
diplomatic charm offensive led by First Son Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba to
normalise frosty relations between Uganda and Rwanda.
In a tweet
shortly after the military spymasters signed the deal, Gen Muhoozi, who
then was UPDF Commander of Land Forces, praised leaders and armies of
the two countries for “revitalising our strong alliance”.
In other
prior posts on the micro-blogging side, the First Son pledged Uganda’s
backing of Rwanda in any fight, pricking the heart of Congo that had
publicly proclaimed Rwanda as an adversary.
Defence and Military Spokesman, Brig
Felix Kulayigye, last night told this publication that he was not aware
of any military pact under which Rwanda would establish presence in
Uganda for intelligence coordination.
Accusing Uganda of supporting M23 rebels, he argued, was an “insult to Uganda”.
“Do they have evidence? We have facilitated the FARDC, treated their
wounded soldiers and handed over their soldiers with their weapons to
their country,” Brig Gen Kulayigye said in respect to a
counter-offensive by UPDF earlier in the year that expelled M23 that had
overwhelmed Congolese troop and temporarily took control of Bunagana
Town on DRC side.
He tasked Congolese making the allegations to share supporting evidence.
Speaking
earlier on Monday, Congo’s Minister of Communication Patrick Muyaya
said they were investigating whether Uganda had a hand supporting the
rebels making battlefield gains.
“What you need to know, we are operating with Uganda in a clear way
in Beni, against ADF terrorists. We waited for information in this
direction, saying that there would have been involvement of the Ugandan
army in the latest events. These facts are being traced,” he said in
comments published by Politico Magazine.
The M23 is a rebel group
formed in 2012 and whose grievances span political and marginalisation
claims of mainly the Tutsi, a tribe spread across borders. Botched
implementation of agreements reached with Joseph Kabila’s administration
birthed resurgence of the current hostility in which President
Tshisekedi’s government has characterised the fighters as “terrorists”.
Highly-placed security sources told this publication that a military
power house in southern Africa is supporting Kinshasa with advanced
aerial technology to capture information on military, troop and
equipment movement into Congo from neighbouring countries.
After
barreling their way to conquer Bunagana border town on the Congo side in
July to the alarm of regional leaders, the M23 fighters have added more
territories under its control ahead of an expected counter-offensive by
the East African Community regional force.
The renewed violence
seized the attention of regional leaders, with then Kenyan President
Uhuru Kenyatta chairing a number of conclaves of peers in Nairobi, which
resolved on deployment of regional military power to pacify the restive
but mineral-rich eastern Congo.
“I further call for the declaration of Ituri, North Kivu (Bunagana,
Bugusu, most parts of Petit Nord, Masisi, Lubero, Beni-Kasindi main
axis) and South Kivu provinces a weapons-free zone, where any individual
or group carrying weapons outside the official and legally deployed and
mandated forces in the country will be disarmed,” he said then while
announcing activation of the regional force.
With Kenya only
deploying yesterday in addition to Burundi, and other member states
either barred or yet to deploy troops, M23 rebels have nearly doubled
captured Congolese territory under its control over past weeks.
