BY Tom Mugisha, tom.mugisha@alleastafrica.com
KAMPALA – Uganda’s army is on alert following clashes between the rebels Allied Democratic Forces and the UN troops in the neighbouring DR Congo.
The military spokesperson Brig Richard Karemire said on Thursday that they had heightened security at the Uganda-DR Congo border.
“We have increased security at the border,” he said. The Ugandan rebel group but currently operating in DR Congo attacked a UN base, killed two and injured 18 peacekeepers.
Brig Richard Karemire also said the Congolese and Ugandan militaries were sharing information on the rebel.
ADF is considered a terrorist organisation by the Ugandan government. It was originally based in western Uganda but was pushed out by the Ugandan army and fled into the neighbouring DRC.
Since the late 1990s, the ADF has operated in the DRC’s North Kivu province near the border with Uganda. While repeated military offensives against the ADF have severely affected it, the ADF has been able to regenerate because its recruitment.
Its leader Jamil Mukulu was arrested in Tanzania and extradited to Uganda where he has been in custody for almost two years without trial.
The Monday attack on the U.N. base in Mamundioma, about 35 kilometers, from Beni, is the second in one month.
There were reports of new refugees fleeing DR Congo and entering Uganda.
