KAMPALA: The Ugandan army confirmed Sunday it has sent troops to another town in 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,” Uganda’s defense and military affairs spokesman Felix Kulayigye said 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, or Codeco, he said, without providing further details.
Mahagi is in Ituri province, which borders Uganda, where at least 51 people were killed on Feb. 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, 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 is backed by neighboring Rwanda.
Analysts fear that Uganda and Rwanda’s growing presence in eastern Congo 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.
Meanwhile, Congo’s army denied on Sunday that 20 fighters linked to the Rwandan genocide had been captured on its territory, calling a video of their handover to Rwanda “faked.”
The statement came after the Rwanda-backed M23 armed group in eastern Congo said on Saturday it had captured fighters from the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda, or FDLR, a militia founded by ethnic Hutus who took part in the genocide of Tutsis in Rwanda in 1994.
Rwanda has long pointed to the alleged presence of the FDLR in eastern Congo to justify its support for the M23.
With Rwanda’s backing, the M23 has seized swaths of the Congo’s troubled, mineral-rich east in recent months, including the key provincial capitals of Goma and Bukavu.
The M23 released a video showing its forces handing over 20 alleged FDLR fighters to Rwanda at a border post between the two countries.
“This is a faked incident in poor taste orchestrated with the sole aim of discrediting our army,” the Congolese armed forces chiefs of staff said in a statement.
“This is part of the Rwandan strategy to justify the invasion of parts of the DRC’s territory,” it added.
“The Rwandan authorities, who specialize in the art of lies and manipulation, took old FDLR detainees, dressed them in new military fatigues, and passed them off as FDLR fighters newly captured in Goma.”
The Congolese high command also accused the Rwandan army of “summary executions” of wounded and ill soldiers at a field hospital in Goma, which “constitutes a war crime and crime against humanity,” it said.
