Anna Borzello in Kampala
A coalition force of Ugandan rebels, Sudanese government troops and former fighters of ousted Zairean president Mobutu Sese Seko is operating from bases in Garamba National Park in the Democratic Republic of Congo, according to the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA).
Garamba, in the north-east of Congo, borders Sudan to the north and is 100km from the Ugandan border.
The source said the force comprised 3 000 ex-Mobutu troops, 1 500 Ugandan rebels and several hundred SPLA deserters and Sudanese government troops. The claim was confirmed by Uganda’s acting Defence Minister, Major General Salim Saleh. “We know they are in the park. We are tracking their movements,” he said.
The SPLA source said the Mobutu supporters fled to Garamba in February 1997 after their defeat by the forces of President Laurent Kabila, who seized the capital, Kinshasa, three months later.
The Sudanese soldiers and Ugandan rebels joined the group in March 1997, after a joint SPLA and Ugandan government offensive in South Sudan captured the Uganda/Sudan border for the SPLA.
During the March offensive the Sudanese bases of the Ugandan rebel West Nile Bank Front were destroyed. Hundreds of Ugandan rebels were killed and more than 1 000 surrendered. But 1 500 rebels and several hundred Sudanese government soldiers escaped to Garamba.
The source said that although the three factions in Garamba had different goals, Sudan’s National Islamic Front government had been able to co-ordinate their activities.
In December the leaders of the three factions flew to Sudan’s capital, Khartoum, where they agreed to unite to attack the SPLA rear bases. In return, Sudan’s government has agreed to help the Ugandan rebels overthrow Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni, and to help Mobutu’s supporters to oust Kabila in Congo.
Since the start of the year there have been airdrops into Garamba by Sudanese government Antonov jets, the source said.
The Sudanese government hopes that by destabilising Uganda and its allies in the Great Lakes region it will be able to destroy support for the SPLA, which has been fighting domination by the Islamist North since 1993.
It is the first time that SPLA or Ugandan officials have admitted that there are opposition forces in Garamba.