Ugandan, DR Congo troops secure eastern Congolese city Bunia
KAMPALA — Uganda said on Wednesday its troops have "taken control" of security in the city of Bunia in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, working with Congolese forces to fend off local militias.
The move came as the Rwanda-backed M23 armed group has been seizing territory further south in the neighbouring North and South Kivu provinces, raising fears of a regional war.
"Working with our Congolese counterparts, Uganda sent troops to Bunia and the forces of the two countries have taken control of the security situation to stop further killings," Uganda's Foreign Minister Henry Oryem told AFP.
Bunia is the capital of Ituri province, where Uganda already had thousands of troops under an agreement with Kinshasa.
They operate alongside DRC forces against the Allied Democratic Forces, which has been linked to the Islamic State group, and tribal militias.
Oryem said the deployment aimed to "deal with armed elements including the remnants of Allied Democratic Forces who may still be active in areas under our cooperation agreement".
Oryem and the defence ministry declined to give the exact number of Ugandan troops deployed in Bunia or say whether the country planned to send additional troops to the city.
Military sources and analysts have said that Uganda has between 5,000 and 7,000 troops there.
Ugandan military spokesman Felix Kulayigye told AFP on Tuesday the country had deployed along with DRC forces in "joint operations to save lives" after "massacres" by local militias.
But in the highly complex dynamics of the region, Uganda has also been accused, by UN experts and others, of working against Congolese interests by supporting the M23 and controlling some of the region's valuable mining interests.
Uganda has strongly denied the accusations.
A senior analyst at South Africa-based consultancy Signal Risk, Daniel van Dalen, judged that for the time being the Ugandan move was "a very localised issue".
"I don't think right now it has anything to do with the M23 conflict," he told AFP.
"Uganda is quite far away from where M23 is for the moment."
But with various other groups involved in the unrest in the region, he said, "Uganda is worried about a spillover into its territory and it's willing to help out".
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