This Tuesday, Muhoozi Kainerugaba, the head of the Ugandan army, announced in a tweet the withdrawal of Ugandan troops from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). An announcement that will take effect at the end of May, which displeases Kinshasa.
Uganda will withdraw its troops from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in two weeks, six months after the start of the joint military operation against armed groups in the region.
Since December 2021, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni had sent 1 troops to eastern DRC. The Congolese army was also deployed in the region, as part of an operation against rebel and terrorist groups. A common enemy was then targeted: the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF). A rebel group of Ugandan origin, which had mutated over the years into a terrorist organization with a presence in neighboring countries and in Mozambique.
This Tuesday, May 17, the head of the army - and son of Ugandan President Museveni - Muhoozi Kainerugaba announced on twitter the withdrawal of Ugandan troops from the region. “Operation Shujaa will officially end in two weeks according to our initial agreement. It was supposed to last 6 months. Unless I receive further instructions from our Commander-in-Chief (the President) or the CDF (Wilson Mbadi, Chief of Staff of the Army, editor's note), I will withdraw all our troops from the DRC in two weeks” , announced the soldier.
The Ugandan intervention in the DRC is the largest joint operation with a foreign army for 13 years. Its raison d'etre: a series of suicide attacks in Kampala in November. Uganda then accused the ADF. On the DRC side, the terrorist threat in the east of the country has been going on for decades, and seemed insoluble even after the FARDC military intervention initiated by Congolese President Félix Tshisekedi.
A “premature” decision for the DRC
In the DRC, the government considered the withdrawal of Ugandan troops to be “premature”. Government spokesman Patrick Muyaya said: "Before deciding to put an end to what had been agreed, there must be meetings of the staffs, which must assess the degree of evolution in relation to the initial objectives" .
For his part, Muhoozi Kainerugaba said in a second tweet: “To be clear, the operation will continue for another 6 months if the two presidents Museveni and Tshisekedi decide to extend it. Our joint forces will be happy to continue taking out the ADF! ".
From Kampala, Ugandan Defense Minister Vincent Ssempijja confirmed that the agreement with the DRC did end on May 31. “This is the first time that the (Ugandan) authorities have mentioned a deadline. Until now, the Ugandan army assured that it would remain on the spot the time necessary to eliminate the group of the ADF”, analyzes RFI.
The reasons for the Ugandan withdrawal
In April, a former armed rebel group, presumed dissolved, carried out several attacks in eastern DRC. This is the March 23 Movement (M23). This group, politically represented in Kinshasa in the highest spheres of the State, would have been according to sources of the Journal of Africa at the origin of the assassination of the ambassador of Italy in DRC, Luca Attanasio, Last year. The M23 was originally a rebel movement based in Rwanda, led by Laurent Nkunda, from where it contested agreements on the exploitation of minerals between Kabila and China.
Read: Death of the Italian ambassador to the DRC: a political assassination?
The sudden return of the M23 is simply a matter of media blackout on the situation in North Kivu. While the media mainly focus on the activity and affiliations of the ADF, to which attacks that the terrorist group does not claim are attributed to it, the reality is that dozens of armed groups are present in the region.
Anyway, the decision of Uganda, which is still awaiting a possible agreement between Museveni and Tshisekedi, could also be due to the recent agreement between Tshisekedi and his Kenyan counterpart Uhuru Kenyatta. At the summit of the Community of East African States (EAC) on April 21, the leaders present had decided that a sub-regional force should be mobilized in the DRC. A military deployment which will take place unless the armed groups in the east of the DRC "participate unconditionally in a political process aimed at resolving their grievances vis-à-vis the State".
A decision of the EAC with which Uganda could have disagreed. Another hypothesis would be the annoyance of Kampala about this exit door offered to rebel and terrorist groups, desperate since the Ugandan intervention.