UPDF hands over Eskimo camp

Mar 18, 2009

After 90 days of occupying LRA rebel leader Joseph Kony’s main hideout, the UPDF on Tuesday, handed over camp Eskimo in Garamba Forest to the Congolese troops.

By Barbara Among

After 90 days of occupying LRA rebel leader Joseph Kony’s main hideout, the UPDF on Tuesday, handed over camp Eskimo in Garamba Forest to the Congolese troops.

In a colourful ceremony, characterised with signing and dancing, the Ugandan chief of defence forces, Gen. Aronda Nyakairima, handed over the camp to his Congolese counterpart, Gen. Didier Etumba.

In a straight line, the soldiers matched out of the camp, carrying military equipment, including guns, grenades and back parks containing personal belongings.

To witness the handover was Uganda’s chief of military intelligence, Brig. James Mugirwa and two operation commanders, Brig. Patrick Kankiriho and Col. Mondos Muhindo.

“It was in this camp that Kony and his masters planned how to spread their terror against the Congolese people. It is here that Kony commanded and cultivated food using the abductees,” Nyakairima said.

He expressed confidence that the Congolese forces, assisted by the United Nations Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (MONUC), would ensure that Kony does not return to the camp.

Etumba vowed to continue to pursue Kony.

“We shall track Kony, capture or kill him,” he said, and promised to share intelligence with the UPDF.

Etumba praised the unity showed during the joint operation, saying it was a new error from which other armies should learn.

“The operation was a big blow to the LRA,” he said.

In a press statement, the UPDF said it would ensure that Kony does not return to Uganda.

“People in northern Uganda should go about their business and think of development rather than the LRA,” Nyakairima said.

Ugandan troops began withdrawing from Garamba Forest on Sunday, three months after the launch of the joint operation.

The operation was launched by the UPDF, Southern Sudan and the DR Congo.

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