DRC and Sudan say no Sudanese military in Congo

Sudan and DRC today (Tuesday) denied that Khartoum had troops in DRC following reports that a “Sudanese soldier” had been captured by Congolese rebels and taken to Uganda. “The government of Sudan did not and will not deploy troops in DRC. Its support to this friendly neighbour is purely political,” the Sudan Embassy spokesman in Nairobi, Al Mansour Bolad, told IRIN. “So many countries are involved in DRC and have openly declared their military support, we have declared our political support, why would we shy away if we were militarily involved,” he added. Prof Gaspard Mugaruka, the Congolese charge d’affaires in Nairobi, also dismissed the reports, carried this week by international media, that the Ugandan army in Kampala was holding a Sudanese government soldier captured last month during a battle with anti-government rebels in DRC. “There are no Sudanese military in our country,” Mugaruka told IRIN today. “We have Angola, Zimbabwe, Namibia and Chad fighting with us and we have never hidden the fact that there are Angolan, Zimbabwean, Namibian and Chadian troops in the DRC, but there are no Sudanese troops.” He charged that the claim was a ploy by the DRC’s enemies to gain the sympathy of the United States. “What we denounce,” Mugaruka said, “is the silence of the international community” while “innocent people are being killed”. He added: “We want the international community to denounce our aggressors.”