Uganda denies aiming to fight Rwanda-backed forces in DR Congo

Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni on Friday denied his troops intended to fight Rwanda-backed forces in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, after sending troops to secure an eastern Congolese town.

The longtime ruler spoke out as the routing of DRC forces by the M23 armed group prompted the United Nations to warn of the risk of a wider regional war.

“With the deteriorating security situation in eastern Congo, we secured the permission of the Congo government to deploy” against local militias, particularly the Islamist-linked ADF group, Museveni said in a post on X.

“Our presence in Congo, therefore, has nothing to do with fighting the M23 rebels,” he added.

The Rwanda-backed M23 has seized territory in the DRC’s North and South Kivu provinces in a deadly assault over recent weeks.

Further north, Ugandan troops have secured the city of Bunia, working with Congolese forces, Museveni’s Foreign Minister Henry Oryem said on Wednesday.

“Right from the beginning, our advice to the involved parties in the Congo government-M23 conflict was negotiations,” Museveni added on Friday.

Former rebel fighter Museveni took power in 1986 after a civil war and has ruled Uganda ever since.

Uganda already had thousands of troops near Bunia under an agreement with Kinshasa, operating alongside DRC forces against the Allied Democratic Forces — which has been linked to the Islamic State group — and tribal militias.

Uganda has denied claims by UN experts and others that it was working against Congolese interests by supporting the M23 and controlling some of the region’s valuable mining interests.

Huang Xia, the UN Secretary-General’s special envoy for the Great Lakes region, told the Security Council on Wednesday that M23 and its allies were continuing their advance towards “other strategic areas” in North and South Kivu.

“The risk of a regional conflagration is more real than ever,” he warned.

A diplomatic source who asked not to be named told AFP that Uganda wanted to maintain “cooperation with DRC” and was taking a “political approach” to the conflict rather than a military one.