French troops due Bunia within two weeks

French troops for the multinational emergency force for the town of Bunia, in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, will deploy fully within the next two weeks, French officials said on Saturday. The French officer in charge of logistics at Uganda's Entebbe airport, Col Dennis Koehl, said around 400 French troops would be in Bunia, Ituri District, by the middle of the week. He said another 350 would remain at the military sector of Entebbe International Airport. French forces, equipment and supplies are being ferried first to Entebbe before being flown on smaller airplanes to Bunia's tiny airstrip. "The state of the runway at the airport of Bunia makes it extremely complicated for such a large operation," he said. "The speed of troop deployment is hence conditioned by the low number of rotations that can be effected on Bunia runway." France is due to provide half of some 1,400 to 1,500 multinational troops due to be deployed to Bunia. Koehl said a French reconnaissance team of 10-15 people was in Bunia and that 40-50 mostly air force support personnel were due in Entebbe on Monday. Kampala’s Monitor newspaper reported that about 60 Canadian Air Force and intelligence officials arrived in Entebbe on Saturday, and were received by Uganda’s chief of military intelligence, Col Noble Mayombo. The daily reported that the Canadians would provide technical support to the multinational force. South Africa also announced on Sunday it would provide troops both to this force and to the UN Mission in the Congo, AFP reported quoting Minister for Provincial Affairs Sydney Mufamadi. UN News reported on Friday that at least five British military personnel arrived with the French as an advance unit in Bunia to assess the practical participation of British soldiers to the multinational force. The French-led force will operate only in Bunia, and not in the rest of Ituri District. French Ambassador to Uganda Jean Bernard Thiant said critics of this restriction had misunderstood the purpose of the mission. "The mandate of the troops is to secure Bunia and its airport to allow safe passage for humanitarian assistance to displaced persons staying in camps in Bunia," Bernard Thiant said. "We are not here to disarm the militias or to prevent fighting in the whole of Ituri. What happens outside Bunia is a big problem, we agree. But we need more than 1,500 soldiers to tackle it." He also said that the multinational force would not side with any party if fighting broke out again in Bunia. "Our job is simply to keep the peace by our presence there," he said. Meanwhile, news organisations reported that relative calm had returned to Bunia after Saturday's fierce gun battle between attacking Lendu militiamen and Hema fighters holding the town. "Hundreds of people carrying mattresses and pots and pans nervously returned to their homes" on Sunday, the Associated Press reported.