Uganda should end its support of armed groups in northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo, five months after withdrawing its troops from the central African nation, the head of Amnesty International said on Tuesday.
The human rights organisation has evidence that Uganda is still supporting at least two tribal militias in the northeastern region of Ituri, Irene Khan told reporters.
”We do have a lot of information that some armed groups in Ituri are getting military support from Uganda. We have reports of elements being supported by Uganda,” Khan said.
Uganda ”must take immediate steps to end its continued support of armed groups and the economic plunder which fuels the atrocities,” in northeastern DRC, the human rights organisation said in a report.
There are several thousand UN troops from Bangladesh, Uruguay, Pakistan, Nepal and India pushing to secure the Ituri capital, Bunia, before deploying in the rest of the province the size of Belgium.
”They (Amnesty) are falling prey to a rumour mill in Congo being spinned out by different factions, each trying to attract attention to itself. We’re not supporting any of these groups. In fact we support the Kinshasa dispensation,” army spokesperson Major Shaban Bantariza said.
Khan, who’s already visited Rwanda, is on a 10-day mission to DRC and Uganda to discuss the group’s human rights concerns.
Uganda withdrew troops from DRC in May as part of peace deals meant to end the five-year, six-nation war in DRC, Africa’s third-largest nation. A transitional government was formed in July and includes leaders of rebel groups that were backed by Uganda.
The war in DRC broke out in 1998 when Uganda and Rwanda sent troops to back rebels seeking to oust then-President Laurent Kabila, Joseph’s father, accusing him of arming insurgents threatening regional security.
Relief groups estimate the war has killed up to three-million people, most of them civilians who died from war-induced starvation and disease. – Sapa-AP