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D.R.Congo: Leader of M23 movement surrenders in Uganda
Uganda is holding the military commander of Congo’s defeated M23 rebel movement after he surrendered, a Ugandan officer said on Thursday, allaying fears that it could still take up arms again.
Sultani Makenga’s whereabouts had been unclear since Tuesday’s declaration by the M23 that it was ending its 20-month-old insurgency in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, worrying some that he could be hiding with plans to regroup.
His surrender will be seen as a major achievement for the Congolese army, with the backing of a combined African Union and U.N. force, as it strives to restore calm in a region racked by war for two decades.
“I can confirm to you he (Makenga) is with us,” the senior Ugandan officer, who asked not to be named, told reporters.
“He surrendered to us yesterday (Wednesday) and we’re holding him somewhere and some other commanders of his,” he said, adding the group of rebels would be held at an undisclosed location until a peace agreement was signed.
The Congolese government had no immediate comment.
The M23 group declared an end to its military campaign and said it would seek political talks after Congolese troops routed them from their hide-outs with the support of a U.N. force of African troops with a mandate to intervene.
“We have roughly about 1,500 M23 combatants who surrendered to us. We have disarmed all of them and we’re in the process of documenting and categorizing all their weapons,” said Captain Ronald Kakurungu, army spokesperson for Uganda’s Western region.
That number of 1,500 is higher than most previous estimates of the strength of the M23, which experts had generally believed to have dwindled in recent months to a few hundred.
The M23, initially launched its campaign when it said a peace deal with another Tutsi-led group had not been honored by the Congolese government.
Diplomats at the United Nations said the Congolese army and 3,000-strong combined African Union and U.N. intervention force could now turn their attention to other groups in the D.R. Congo’s east.
Millions of people have died from violence, disease and hunger since the 1990s as dozens of rebel groups have fought for control of eastern Congo’s rich deposits of gold, diamonds, copper, cobalt and uranium.
Source: Reuters, Newswires