Ugandan troops in final touches ahead of deployment to DRC against M23 rebels

The Ugandan army(UPDF) is readying itself for deployment under the banner of a regional bloc in the war-ravaged east of the DRC against the M23 rebels, authorities have said.

“UPDF troops in final touches to deploy in the DRC under the East African Community Regional Force. The force is currently undergoing final mentoring before they are inserted into Eastern DRC to join their Kenyan counterparts already in Goma,” UPDF spokesperson, Brig Felix Kulayigye tweeted on Thursday.

Without giving more details, the UPDF spokesperson said soon the troop will be deployed to join their counterparts from Kenya in eastern DRC.

In June East African Community heads of state agreed to have boots on ground by deploy  a regional standby force in Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo against the M23 rebels who have become a menace.

“The deployed EAC regional force should, in cooperation with the military and administrative forces of the DRC, seek to stabilise and secure the peace in the DRC,” a joint communique by the leaders read in part.

Kenya recently deployed troops in two batches in eastern DRC as part of the regional standby force to help the DRC government battle rebels who now control key localities forcing thousands of Congolese to flee their homes.

The deputy Chief of Defence Forces in the UPDF, Lt Gen Peter Elwelu recently warned that it would take only 24 hours for the regional force to defeat M23 rebels.

“If the EAC regional forces being deployed unanimously decides to push M23 back, it won’t even take 24 hours, this they know very well,” Gen Elwelu said.

M23

Having risen to prominence a decade ago where it captured Goma City , M23 went into a lull before reemerging earlier this year.

In the past few months,  there has been renewed fighting between M23 rebels and DRC government forces of FADRC in the eastern part of the country.

The rebel group has since cut off some of the borders between Uganda and DRC.