8 Jan. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Ugandan Army has deployed a contingent of troops in the municipality of Kanungu, on the border with the DRC, before the advance of the rebel militias of the March 23 Movement towards the border town of Ishasha.
Lieutenant Colonel Robert Nahamya announced last Thursday the deployment to “protect Ugandans who are part of the border communities from the secondary effects of the armed conflict” in northeast DRC.
There, the Congolese Army has been leading a new episode of the long conflict with the M23 since March last year, while the Government accuses Uganda and Rwanda of supporting the guerrillas to foment instability in Congolese territory. Both countries have denied any involvement.
Ishasa is becoming a new epicenter of this conflict, being the destination of thousands of Congolese who are escaping the advance of the M23, which has been sending confusing signals about its objectives for days as it withdraws from some areas of the northeast while it did with the control of additional populations.
Right now, and according to sources from the Ugandan newspaper ‘Monitor’, they are only 20 kilometers from this town after having assumed control of several towns and local markets in the last few hours.
Faced with this situation, Colonel Nahamya asks “local leaders and residents of border communities to be vigilant in the presence of suspicious people who cross the dividing line between the two countries.”
