The Ugandan Army has deployed a contingent of troops in the municipality of Kanungu, on the border with the DRC, in the face of 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 northeastern DRC.
There, the Congolese army has been engaged since March last year in a new episode of the long conflict with the M23 while the government accuses Uganda and Rwanda of supporting the guerrillas to foment instability in the 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 from the advance of the M23, which has been sending confusing signals for days about its objectives by withdrawing from some areas in the northeast while taking control of additional populations.
Right now, and according to sources of the Ugandan newspaper ‘Monitor’, they are only 20 kilometers away from this locality after having taken control of several villages and local markets in the last hours.
In view of this situation, Colonel Nahamya asked «local leaders and residents of the border communities to be alert to the presence of suspicious people crossing the dividing line between the two countries».
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
