Uganda was on Tuesday halfway through withdrawing some 500 of its soldiers from the Democratic Republic of Congo’s (DRC) northern town of Gbadolite, an AFP reporter travelling with them has reported.
Some 200 Ugandan soldiers disembarked here on Monday from a Russian-made Ilyushin cargo plane, walking in single file, carrying their bags and weapons.
”I am happy to be home. It has been two years since I left and am anxious to meet my family who have not heard from me since I went to Congo,” said a soldier who identified himself only as Sergeant Onen.
”But I’m also sad because I left behind my Congolese woman with whom I had a kid because we have been discouraged from taking them with us,” he added.
Kampala started withdrawing its 10 000 troops in the DRC after the signing of a peace agreement in Lusaka in 1999 aimed at ending the conflict in the vast central African country.
At its height, the conflict drew in seven African nations: Uganda and Rwanda backed rebel movements in the eastern DRC since 1998, while Angola, Namibia and Zimbabwe deployed troops to shore up the government in Kinshasa.
Chad was also briefly involved in the conflict, on the DRC government’s side. The pull-out of Ugandan forces from Gbadolite is expected to be completed by Wednesday.
A crowd gathered on Monday at Gbadolite airport to bid good-bye to the Ugandans. Among them were women who are married to some of the soldiers.
Some of the women carried little children or babies and watched forlornly as their departing husbands boarded the plane.
Army representative Captain Felix Kulaigye said it had been decided that the military would only be responsible for the transport of the soldiers and equipment, not their wives.
”That is a private matter between individual soldiers and their Congolese spouses. It cannot be the responsibility of the army to transport them to Uganda. We care for what is ours, which is the soldier, his gun and our equipment,” he added.
During earlier withdrawals, soldiers were allowed to bring their wives back to Uganda. – Sapa-AFP