The Ugandan army confirmed Sunday it has sent troops to another town in the northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo to fight local armed groups, amid fears a raging conflict could spiral into a wider war.
“Our troops have entered Mahagi town, and we are in control,” Defense and Military Affairs spokesperson Felix Kulayigye told AFP Sunday.
The deployment was requested by the Congolese army following alleged massacres of civilians carried out by a militia known as the Cooperative for the Development of Congo (CODECO), he said, without providing further details.
Mahagi is in Ituri province, which borders Uganda, where at least 51 people were killed on February 10 by armed men affiliated with CODECO, according to humanitarian and local sources. CODECO claims it defends the interests of the Lendu community, mainly composed of farmers, against the Hema community, who are mainly herders.
Uganda already has thousands of troops in other parts of Ituri under an agreement with the Congolese government. Last month, Uganda announced its troops had “taken control” of the provincial capital, Bunia.
Ituri is just north of the provinces of North and South Kivu, which at the end of January fell under the control of the anti-government M23 armed group, which the DRC says is backed by neighboring Rwanda. A claim that Kigali denies.
Analysts fear that Uganda and Rwanda’s growing presence in eastern DRC could lead to a repeat of the so-called Second Congo War, which lasted from 1998 to 2003, involving many African countries and resulting in millions of deaths from violence, disease and famine.
Where for heavens’s sake is Uganda getting all the money to participate in another longtime civil war of the Congo and Rwanda when it is financially soaked deep in international and national debts of over 60 billion shillings? If these Uganda soldiers are not properly paid such an economic situation might degenerate into insecurity and more looting of the Democratic Republic of Congo!
The NRA Mercenaries are precisely in DRC to loot the country of its natural resources . They will, as they have done every single day over the past 30 or so years, loot timber, rare earth minerals such as gold and coltan, and cash crops such as coffee. The owners of the Mercenaries will take all the money to line their packets. They will give the mercenaries Congolese women to rape and impregnate as a reward.
Kulayigye is lying through the skin of his teeth when he says the NRA Mercenaries are in DRC at the invitation of the Congolese government. If the Congolese government loved Uganda that much, why was Uganda’s embassy looted and burnt down? Currently, our Embassy Officials in Kinshasa are hiding to avoid being killed!
Well, a combined force of Russian and American soldiers are coming for you.
Under such economic hardship for many citizens of Uganda, the Uganda government with its adventures of peacemaker all over the continent of Africa was some years back ordered to pay $325m (£240m) to the Democratic Republic of Congo for its role in the conflict there. The International Court of Justice (ICJ) did rule that Uganda had violated international norms as an occupying force between 1998 and 2003. The judges found that Uganda was responsible for the deaths of 10-15,000 people in the eastern Ituri region. Ugandan troops were also found to have looted gold, diamonds and timber. With such looting of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, a bill of USD $11bn was put forward by this very country that is presently requesting the return of the Uganda Army in its country! Has the country of Uganda with its majority NRM Uganda Parliament of about now 35 years of governance, finished the five annual instalment payments of USD $65 between the years of 2022 and 2026 as ordered by the International court of Justice at the Hague in Europe?
Where for heavens’s sake is Uganda getting all the money to participate in another longtime civil war of the Congo and Rwanda when it is financially soaked up deep in international and national debts of over 60 billion shillings? The Uganda Public understands from the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development official report that the current debt of Uganda owed to the international and national financial institutions is not 60 billion shillings as communicated in the initial comment, but it is 21.74 billion dollars (about 80.77 trillion Shillings) at the end of 2022, up from 20.99 billion dollars (78.83 trillion Shillings) in June 2022. Are President Yoweri Museveni’s bazzukulu ready to pay back such a massive debt owed by this country?