Uganda sends 1 000 more soldiers to east Congo near conflict, sources say

Uganda has deployed more than 1 000 extra soldiers into east Congo in the last week near an area where the Kinshasa government is fighting M23 rebels, four diplomatic and United Nations (UN) sources said, heightening fears of a regional escalation.

That raised the number of Ugandan soldiers, officially there to back Democratic Republic of Congo President Felix Tshisekedi’s government, to about 4 000-5 000, according to UN sources. Rwanda backs the M23 and also has troops in east Congo.

Uganda has been helping Congo’s army against another rebel force, the Islamist Allied Defence Forces, and the new deployment of between 1 000-2 000 troops was under that auspice in a push called Operation Shujaa, the sources said.

In a region of complex and often-shifting alliances, UN experts say Uganda has in the past also backed the M23, which is the latest in a string of Rwanda-backed rebellions to take