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Kigali relocates 13 Ugandan dissidents to Sweden

Ugandan dissidents were on Tuesday flown from Rwanda to Sweden after some one-and-a-half years in the country, Rwandan army spokesman Jill Rutaremara told IRIN. He said the 13 former officers of the Uganda People’s Defence Forces included renegade colonels Samson Mande and Anthony Kyakabale. The Ugandan government has accused both men of forming a new rebel group, the People's Redemption Army, and launching attacks from eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. "It is true I have got the information that these people left in the morning," Tim Fisher, the political affairs officer at the British embassy in Kigali, told IRIN. The Ugandan government recently paraded 22 former UPDF troops it said were members of the rebel group. Their presence in Rwanda had been a major cause of friction between Kampala and Kigali. Uganda, for its part, has relocated most of the Rwandan dissidents who had fled to Kampala. Majors Alphonse Furuma and Michael Mupende were recently sent to the United States. However, Rwandan former Defence Minister Emmanuel Habyarimana remains in Kampala. Kigali’s relocation of the dissidents comes ahead of a meeting in London planned for Thursday between the Ugandan and Rwandan presidents. This meeting, part of a series of meetings facilitated by the British government, is aimed at improving relations between Kigali and Kampala.

This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions

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