Uganda army 'ready' for DR Congo deployment

By Moise Bahati, KAMPALA Uganda

The Ugandan army is set to deploy troops to DR Congo as part of the East African Community force tasked to restore peace in the country’s restive eastern region, the Uganda People Defence Force (UPDF) announced on Thursday, November 17.

Uganda will be the second country to send troops to eastern DR Congo as part of the EAC efforts to end more than two decades of insecurity in the region that is home to over 120 armed groups.

Kenya already has troops in eastern DR Congo. The latest Kenyan contingent arrived in Goma last week.

“UPDF troops [are] in final touches to deploy in the DRC under the East African Community Regional Force,” Brig. Felix Kulayigye, the Ugandan army spokesman said in a tweet on Thursday evening.

“The force is currently undergoing final mentoring before they are inserted into Eastern DRC to join their Kenyan counterparts already in Goma.”

Brig. Kulayigye, however, did not disclose the number of troops set to be sent to DR Congo.

Uganda already has troops in Ituri who are tasked with fighting ADF rebels under a bilateral agreement with the Congolese government.

The regional force is primarily tasked to end the ongoing conflict between the Congolese army and the M23 rebels, who have captured significant territory and are said to be approaching Goma, the capital of North Kivu province.

The EAC force’s bigger task is to uproot all the armed groups from the provinces of North Kivu, South Kivu and Ituri, where they are accused of committing atrocities.

At the facilitation of the EAC, the Congolese government is in a process of talks held in Nairobi with the multiple armed groups operating in the east.

The third round of talks is scheduled to start on November 21.

Among the armed groups are three foreign militias, FDLR from Rwanda, RED-Tabara from Burundi and ADF from Rwanda. The foreign armed groups have been given an ultimatum to lay down weapons or be “forcefully removed,” as announced after DR Congo President Felix Tshisekedi’s meeting with Uhuru Kenyatta, the EAC facilitator in the Nairobi process.

The other regional mechanism established to bring peace to eastern DR Congo is the Angola-mediated Luanda process.