As part of efforts to efforts to bring peace in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Ugandan government will by the end of this month send 1,000 troops to join a regional force mandated to help end decades of instability.
This was announced by the Uganda military in a statement issued on Monday in Kampala.
All seven countries of the East African Community (EAC), which Congo joined this year, agreed in April to set up a force to fight militia groups in Congo’s restive east.
With the latest announcement Uganda will be the third country to deploy troops after contingents from Kenya and Burundi arrived in the area, Ugandan army spokesman Felix Kulayigye said, but their involvement has been opposed by some activist groups and officials because of Uganda’s role in Congo’s bloody civil wars.
In September, Uganda paid Congo $65 million, the first instalment of a total of $325 million, in compensation for losses caused by Ugandan troops occupying Congolese territory in the 1990s.
Eastern Congo already hosts hundreds of Ugandan troops, deployed nearly a year ago under a separate bilateral arrangement to help hunt down the Islamic State-allied group Allied Democratic Forces (ADF).
