Joint command center in Kisangani

Rwanda and Uganda are to set up a “joint command center” in Kisangani to oversee implementation of the demilitarisation agreement, which came into effect on Thursday, officials said. “Two of our senior military officers have been dispatched to Kisangani but I cannot confirm whether they are already on the ground,” Ugandan army spokesman Major Phinehas Katirima told IRIN on Friday. Rwanda said two of its senior military officers were already in Kisangani. “The chief of military intelligence and the operations commander were in Kisangani by yesterday, ready for D-day and the initial planning meeting to determine the logistics of withdrawal,” Rwanda’s army spokesman, Major Emmanuel Ndahiro, said on Friday.

Ndahiro said it was still “too early” to say whether the demilitarisation plan would work. “Let’s wait and see how the first meeting goes”, he told IRIN. Under the demilitarisation agreement, almost all Rwandan and Ugandan troops in Kisangani are to redeploy at least 100 km from the town by 16 June. The agreement was reached by the army commanders of the two countries after their troops clashes in Kisangani earlier this month. The demilitarisation exercise is to be monitored by MONUC military observers.