GOMA: Ugandan forces operating as part of an East African regional military force entered the Democratic Republic of Congo on Friday, joining Burundian and Kenyan contingents to supervise a planned pull-back of M23 rebels.
The M23 has conquered parts of the territory in eastern DRC since starting a rebellion again in late 2021 after years of dormancy.
Hundreds of thousands of citizens have become homeless by the conflict, with the rebels also threatening to surround Goma city.
Last June, the 7-nation East African Community decided to create a military force to stabilize volatile eastern Congo.
Kenyan General Jeff Nyagah, the force commander, said that the Ugandan contingent entered the Congolese town of Bunagana on Friday morning.
Ugandan forces crossed into Bunagana
He told journalists that around 1,000 Ugandan troops had crossed into Bunagana on the Ugandan border as part of a contingent that would eventually comprise 2,000 soldiers.
Nyagah said that the withdrawal of M23 would be “sequenced.”
A Bunagana citizen also told AFP that Ugandan forces had entered the town with tanks and vehicles.
On Thursday evening, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni said that the forces are not due to fighting the M23.
Rather, he said, they will take some of the positions that the rebellions have handed over to the East African Force as a neutral force.
30 March was supposed to mark the culmination of the withdrawal of all armed outfits, according to a mid-February timetable adopted by the EAC.
However, it was not respected.
Another resident declined to be named and said the M23 groups were still in the town on Friday.
He said that they are waiting for them to withdraw, and then it could be said that there has been a change.
