Ugandan President Says Joint Military Operations Defeat Insurgents in South Sudan, DR Congo

KAMPALA, Xinhua: Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni has said that joint military operations launched in neighboring South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) have defeated insurgents in both countries.

In a statement posted on his official X account late Saturday, Museveni said the country’s army, the Uganda Peoples’ Defense Forces (UPDF), supported the armies of the two neighbours to defeat the insurgents.

“The South Sudan army of our brother people of South Sudan, supported by the UPDF Expeditionary Force, has completely and quickly defeated the insurgents that had invaded that country, capturing a town known as Nassir and threatening other centers,” Museveni said.

He said that in the DRC, the UPDF has defeated the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) with the support of the Congo army and tamed the Cooperative for the Development of the Congo (CODECO) that has been targeting some of the communities in the eastern DRC region of Ituri.

In March, Uganda deployed troops in South Sudan as tensions escalated between government forces loyal to President Salva Kiir and those loyal to First Vice President Riek Machar.

In the DRC, the Ugandan military and their Congolese counterparts started joint operations against the ADF in November 2021, shortly after the rebel group launched bomb attacks in Kampala, the capital of Uganda.

The ADF, a branch of the Islamic State in Central Africa, is a Ugandan rebel group that is holed up in the jungles of the eastern DRC. The rebel group is blamed for causing havoc in villages in the eastern DRC.

Earlier this year, Uganda deployed troops in Ituri to curb attacks by armed Lendu militants operating under CODECO and other militias.