President Yoweri Museveni has clarified that the Uganda Peoples’ Defense Forces (UPDF) is not in Congo to fight the M23 rebels.

On Wednesday, this week, Uganda deployed 1,000 troops in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) under the East African Community Regional Force (EACRF) command structure to back up the regional political efforts to stabilize the war-torn area.

The Commander Land Forces, Lt. Gen Kayanja Muhanga flagged off the UPDF strong battalion at the Bunagana border in Kisoro district to contribute to the East African Force that is mandated to help the Congolese to stabilize the Rutshuru-Goma area.

“We are not going to fight the M23. Our initial mission is to occupy some of the positions that the M23 has handed over to the East African Force as a neutral force, instead of the Congolese army which the M23 see as enemies in their internal politics,” Museveni said in a statement dated March 30, 2023.

He said the Congolese Government and M23 have agreed to cessation of hostilities, withdrawal of the M23 from some of the specified areas they had captured to other areas that have been agreed upon.

Meanwhile, Museveni said peace talks between the M23 and the Congolese Government should continue so that the problem is handled politically.

Museveni revealed that last year, Uganda deployed troops with the permission of the Congo Government, to fight the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) terrorists in the areas of Beni, Virunga national park, Semuliki, Mbooga and Ituri.

“With our Congolese brothers and sisters, we have seriously degraded ADF, so much that most of them, the remnants, are running towards Mambasa Komanda areas, quite far from the border. The Congolese farmers were able to harvest their cocoa for the first time, in many years. There is peace where we have operated. Our effort there, is code-named “Operation Shujaa,” the President said.

Flagging off the troops on Wednesday, Muhanga, who represented the Chief of Defence Forces, Gen. Wilson Mbasu said UPDF has been involved in peacekeeping operations.

“Having pacified the country, UPDF now exports peace in other countries. We were in Liberia at one time, we are in Somalia, been to South Sudan. He emphasized that EACRF is on a peacekeeping mission to witness the process of achieving peace in the Eastern DRC.

“The EACRF is not going to attack the belligerents there but it is going to witness and ensure the implementations of the decisions that were taken between the heads of states meetings,” Muhanga added.

The UPDF Contingent Commander Colonel Michael Walaka Hyeroba said he is leading ambassadors of peace and tranquillity to help another African country that is under turmoil and assured that the troops under his command are fully prepared to execute the mission.

“We are prepared, we have the train, we have gained the cohesion that is required of us and we are ready for the task that our country and the region has assigned to us," said Col Hyeroba.

It was Kenya which deployed first under the EACRF in the regional capital Goma to among others secure the Goma International Airport from being overrun by the March 23 rebels who has sustained their push against the Kinshasa establishment until recently when the United Nations reported that they were ceding territory and retreating.

South Sudan and Burundi have also deployed limited contingents already. Recently even Angola announced that it was deploying a military unit to backup the DRC government in their push against the rebels following the failure of ceasefire brokered in Nairobi and Luanda-Angola.