Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF) has started implementing the setup of a military base ahead of a major military deployment in Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.
Uganda plans to deploy thousands of troops in North and South Kivu to facilitate the construction of roads in DRC to support regional trade, strategic security and industrialization of Eastern Congo.
Highly placed sources said the Congo military operation is being supervised by President Museveni himself and his counterpart, Felix Tshisekedi.
The top UPDF leaders overseeing the project include Gen Salim Saleh, Chief of Defence Forces Gen David Muhoozi and Special Forces Commander, Lt Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba.
The commander on ground is Deputy CDF, Lt Gen Wilson Mbadi.
He is said to have overseen the raking of the area where UPDF’s operational areas to ease the deployment of soldiers and weapons.
The plan to deploy in DRC started as early as 2019 when Mbadi met with MONUSCO Force Commander Lt Gen Elias Rodrigues Martins Filho at the Ministry of Defence in Mbuya.
The duo agreed to maximize the utilization of the joint Intelligence fusion cell under the ICGLR arrangement based in Kasese district, to support operations against Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) in Eastern DRC.
“Intelligence sharing against negative forces in DRC is crucial, we should use the fusion cell in Kasese to support your operations and end the suffering of our people meted unto them by ADF,” said Gen Mbadi.
Media understands Gen Saleh’s main reason for camping in western districts including Kasese was to help in coordinating UPDF’s planned deployment in DRC.
It’s also understood that Dott Services, which won a $250m contract to construct roads in DRC, has been shopping for armoured vehicles for contractors.
Cabinet last year approved an ambitious plan to construct a 223km road network running from the Ugandan border deep into DRC territory to boost bilateral trade and also addressing the country’s strategic security.
The construction and upgrading of the national road from Kasindi section (border) to Beni (80kms) and the integration of the Beni-Butembo Axis (54 kms) to national road starts this year.
Another road from Bunagana in South Western district of Kisoro through Rutshuru up to Goma (89kms) will also be constructed, easing transport of goods from Uganda to DRC.
According to research by Uganda Bureau of Statistics, some of the major problems faced by traders while participating in cross border trade include forced bribery, ambushes and robbery, confiscation or loss of goods to border officials and imprisonment or detention.
The Beni-Butembo Axis where the new roads will be constructed is known as the ‘death triangle’ for providing refuge to militants especially the Ugandan rebel movement, Allied Democratic Forces (ADF).
The ADF have in recent years stepped up their military activities near the Ugandan border, killing civilians and UN peacekeepers.
Routing the rebel movements would be a major requirement for the successful implementation of the infrastructure project.
Still, tarmac roads are necessary in Eastern Congo to allow DRC security forces quickly respond to emergencies and even realize state presence.
Poor roads continue to undermine efforts to develop the area, creating a fertile ground for rebel movements to recruit and terrorize the region.
Tshisekedi, whose government has since last year waged a protracted military operation against ADF rebels, agreed to work closely with Uganda and other countries in the region to address the issue of negative forces and other armed groups in Eastern DRC.
The volume of trade between Uganda and DR Congo was estimated at $ 531 million by July 2019, but this is largely informal.
Operation
In what officials described as UPDF’s “most fundamental” military operation in the last decade, the Ugandan armed forces will work closely with DRC troops and another force supported by the European Union.
DRC President Felix Tshisekedi recently placed war-torn Ituri and North Kivu under a “state of siege”, allowing the military and police to take over civil jurisdictions.
The move will allow the joint stabilization force to ably conduct operations against rebel movements and militia groups wreaking havoc in the mineral-rich region to set eastern DRC on a new path to industrialization and development.
In a televised address, Tshisekedi this week said he was responding to “endless cries of our people, the agony of our mothers, sisters and daughters in provinces wreaked by bloodthirstiness of ruthless armed movements.”
In April, UNICEF said nearly 175 grave violations have occurred across Ituri since January, such as recruitment of children into armed groups, killing and maiming of children, sexual violence and attacks on schools and hospitals.
Ituri has a total population of 5.7 million people.
It is estimated that more than 1.6 million people across the province are displaced, and 2.8 million are in need of some form of emergency assistance as a result of attacks by rebel groups including the ADF.
Uganda, which is set to commence oil production in the western region, has over the last few years been reinforcing its military positions in the area.
Increased attacks by militants linked to the terrorist Islamic State (IS) forced French oil firm Total to declare force majeure and withdraw its staff from a $20bn Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) project in Northern Mozambique.
President Tshisekedi recently asked France, which has been training Uganda’s Mountain Brigade, to provide support in countering the ISIS-linked ADF movement in Eastern DRC.
The development is very interesting considering that DRC is battling Uganda before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) for compensation for the damage resulting from the violations of international law found by the Court in its Judgment of 19 December 2005.
DRC is demanding from Uganda over $11bn as compensation for the latter’s invasion of DRC in the 1990s which resulted in deaths of thousands of people, destruction of property and looting of natural resources.
Uganda is otherwise entitled to payment of the sum of US$982,797.73 by DRC, an amount not contested by DRC, in compensation for the injury resulting from the invasion, seizure and long-term occupation of Uganda’s Chancery compound in Kinshasa.
The compensation thus awarded to Uganda will be offset against that awarded to the Democratic Republic of the Congo on the basis of its principal claims in the present case.
The case is yet to be determined. But the cooperation between Kinshasa and Kampala has raised prospects of an amicable settlement.
Uganda has over the last two decades conducted military operations in DRC, Rwanda, South Sudan, Equatorial Guinea, Central African Republic, Somalia and Burundi.
