KAMPALA: Uganda began sending home over a thousand fighters of a Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) rebel group yesterday after Kinshasa pressured it to return the refugees so they do not regroup to fight again.
Some 1,430 DRC fighters are believed to have fled into Uganda after Congolese and UN forces quashed their rebellion in eastern Congo in 2013. Most live in military-run camps awaiting amnesties promised under a peace deal.
Kinshasa has been pressing Uganda and Rwanda to repatriate the fighters, fearing they could mobilise and start another rebellion in the country’s troubled east.
Congo has come under international pressure to speed up implementing the peace deal, which grants amnesties for former rebels who promise not to take part in any future insurrections. It does not apply to those wanted for war crimes.
“The first batch of 120 fighters from those willing to go back home will be flying out today,” said Paddy Ankunda, spokesman for the Ugandan military.
Ankunda said several fighters had refused to return home and escaped from a military encampment in western Uganda to a UN High Commissioner for Refugees camp in the same region. “We can’t force anyone to go back home, so for those who have escaped, they’re now the responsibility of the UN,” he said.
UNHCR spokeswoman Lucy Beck said her agency knew some ex-M23 fighters were headed for the UN camp but they would be handed over to a government representative. REUTERS
