Ugandan troops begin pull-out from DRC on Sunday

Uganda will begin withdrawing its troops on Sunday from north-east Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), where they are deployed to hunt Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) rebels, the Congolese defence minister said.

“It has been agreed that the Ugandan soldiers are to be withdrawn beginning Sunday,” DRC Defence Minister Charles Mwando Nsimba said on Friday.

“The operation to track the LRA will continue with MONUC (the UN mission in DR Congo).”

The pull-out should last eight days, said Mwando.

Ugandan, Congolese and south Sudan armies launched an operation against the Ugandan LRA in December after its leader, Joseph Kony, refused to sign a final peace deal with the Kampala government.

They have been unable to capture Kony, though the Ugandan army on Wednesday said they had killed an LRA commander in a south Sudanese jungle in a military operation against the insurgents.

Kony’s rebels are accused of having raped and mutilated civilians, forcibly enlisting child soldiers and of massacring thousands during two decades of conflict.—Sapa-AFP