Troops to leave DRC when peace accord implemented

In the context of the UN Security Council’s call on Uganda and Rwanda to withdraw their troops from the DRC, Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni on Monday said that the withdrawal of his troops from the DRC depended on the implementation of the Lusaka peace accord. “The withdrawal of our forces from the DRC is now dependent on the implementation of the Lusaka accord,” AFP quoted Museveni as saying in his New Year speech. “We urge all the signatories to the accord to abide by their commitments,” he said. He said his troops were in the DRC to safeguard the country’s security “by denying space to the ADF [rebel Allied Democratic Forces] and their supporters from which to destabilise the country”.

“Through the presence of our army in the DRC we have been able to contain the ADF and to prevent administrative instability,” Museveni said. He added that the military intervention had also allowed Ugandan forces to keep at bay elements of the Hutu extremist Interahamwe.