The Ugandan army says it has completely withdrawn from Kisangani in compliance with a UN resolution last month calling on Ugandan and Rwandan forces to pull out following the heavy fighting that left hundreds of civilians dead. “We have even exceeded the minimum required 100 km, the bulk of our forces are already in Buta, 222 km from Kisangani,” Ugandan army spokesman Major Pheneas Katirima told IRIN on Wednesday. “The repositioning of our forces will depend on how the situation develops.” The semi-official ‘New Vision’ daily on Wednesday reported that the last Ugandan army unit had arrived at Banalia, 128 km north of Kisangani, on Monday. “This is the last unit of the 9th battalion. There is now no Ugandan soldier in Kisangani,” the paper quoted the army commander in the Kisangani sector, Colonel Sula Semakula, as saying. The Rwandan authorities on Wednesday also confirmed the complete withdrawal of their troops from Kisangani. “We have nothing to do with Kisangani, our forces are more than 100 km away,” Rwandan army spokesman Major Emmanuel Ndahiro told IRIN. “We hope nobody will take advantage of the withdrawal to use it as a basis to fight us.”
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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