1,000 additional Ugandan soldiers are sent to the east Congo near the M23 conflict, according to sources

In the last week, Uganda has sent over 1,000 additional troops into east Congo, close to a region where the Kinshasa government is battling M23 rebels, according to four diplomatic and U.N. officials, raising concerns about a regional escalation.

Locals said that they were heading toward the area of confrontation.

Anarchic and mineral-rich, the Rwandan-backed M23 recently took control of Goma, the regional capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, whose wars in 1996–1997 and 1998–2003 attracted foreign powers and claimed millions of lives, primarily from starvation and illness.

According to U.N. sources, the additional Ugandan military presence north of Goma would increase its strength to perhaps 4,000–5,000, formally to support Congo President Felix Tshisekedi’s army against another rebel group.

There are Rwandan forces in East Congo as well.

According to the reports, Uganda has been assisting Congo in its conflict with the Islamist Allied Defense Forces since 2021, and as part of a push known as Operation Shujaa, between 1,000 and 2,000 troops were recently deployed.

The ethnic Tutsi-led M23 is the most recent in a series of Rwanda-sponsored uprisings to take up weapons in the name of Congo’s Tutsis, and Uganda has also backed them, according to U.N. experts in an area with complicated and sometimes shifting ties.

Since the weekend, residents of Butembo town told Reuters they had witnessed columns of Ugandan military moving southward toward the front line with the M23.

A substantial fresh deployment was disputed by Ugandan army spokesperson Felix Kulayigye, who stated that the troops had shifted their “posture to offensive defense” without providing any other information.

In response to a question about whether additional troops had come, Congo’s Communications Minister Patrick Muyaya emphasized that Ugandan forces in the region should prioritize fighting the ADF, while they might also engage in battle with M23 and Rwandan soldiers.

“There’s still a lot of suspicion about Uganda, a lot of suspicion about what’s generally happening with the M23,” according to him.

The “surge” in Uganda

Uganda did not provide any assistance, but Corneille Nangaa, the leader of the Alliance Fleuve Congo, an umbrella group that comprises the M23 militants, told Reuters he would not anticipate hostilities.

Uganda rejects The U.N. claims to have provided the organization with a rear base to transport troops and weapons, as well as assistance in training some M23 fighters.

The M23 rebels have been strengthening their control over Goma and advancing on Bukavu, a town located about 200 kilometers (125 miles) to the south, after seizing a large portion of North Kivu province. Having encountered opposition from Burundian and Congolese troops, they have declared their intention to not capture the city.

Previously, Rwanda and Uganda both entered East Congo to defend their borders, but they were accused of stealing natural resources, particularly gold.

According to Zobel Behalal, a senior specialist at the think tank Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime, Uganda would take all necessary steps to safeguard its interests because eastern Congo is just as vital to its economy as it is to Rwanda’s.

He remarked, “The surge is preparation for this,” alluding to Uganda’s attempts to control any violence that spreads so that it may keep using their common border for commerce and economic gain.

Uganda has been assisting Tshisekedi’s army in its pursuit of the ADF, an Islamic State affiliate that was founded in Uganda but has been headquartered in Congo since the late 1990s. Attacks from the air and ground have hampered ADF operations and compelled them to evacuate strongholds.

The powerful son of Uganda’s president and chief of the military, Muhoozi Kainerugaba, has openly backed Rwandan President Paul Kagame and his administration, feeding worries about Uganda’s perhaps equivocal stance.

In 2022, he called M23 “brothers of ours” who were fighting for Congo’s Tutsi rights.