Uganda protests to Congo over ADF

Mar 30, 2007

UGANDA yesterday officially protested to the government of the Democratic Republic of Congo over the recent incursions by elements of two rebel groups: the Allied Democratic Front (ADF) and its sister organisation, the National Army for the Liberation of Ugandan (NALU).

BY Alfred Wasike

UGANDA yesterday officially protested to the government of the Democratic Republic of Congo over the recent incursions by elements of two rebel groups: the Allied Democratic Front (ADF) and its sister organisation, the National Army for the Liberation of Ugandan (NALU).

In a meeting with the representative of the Congolese Government in Kampala, state minister for international affairs Henry Oryem Okello handed over a strongly-worded diplomatic note condemning the “continued presence and terrorist activities against Uganda of the ADF and NALU, operating from the territory of the DRC.”

The note called on Kinshasa to “take immediate action to ensure that its territory ceases to be used by negative forces whose purpose was aimed at destabilising Uganda and posing a threat to stability in the region,” according to a press release from the foreign ministry.

It regretted that the events had occurred in spite of frequent UN facilitated meetings between Uganda and the DR Congo.

Oryem delivered a similar message to the UN Observer Mission in Congo, known as MONUC.

“Both the charge d’affaires and the representative of MONUC accepted the message but did not react. MONUC said they would respond in one week,” Oryem told The New Vision.

The ADF incursions took place only two weeks after the countries of the Great Lakes region pledged to act on rebel groups based in their respective countries who were destabilising neighbours.

In the meeting, which took place in the Rwandan capital Kigali, Uganda presented a list of 35 most wanted men, including ADF commanders.
Meanwhile, the Ugandan army killed another four ADF rebels late on Wednesday night.

“We killed them at Bulondo, near the spot where their colleagues were killed two days earlier,” said the UPDF 2nd Division spokesman, Lt. Tabaro Kiconco.
“Around 200 rounds of ammunition were recovered from the dead.”

On Tuesday, 34 ADF rebels were killed, including the over-all operations commander, Bosco Balau Isiko.

Both ADF and NALU are classified as terrorist organisations. It is not clear if the incursions are connected to the recent fighting in Kinshasa between government forces and soldiers of former rebel leader Jean-Pierre Bemba, who used to be supported by Uganda.

(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});