Congo ex-rebels head home from Uganda

Uganda’s government has repatriated 70 Congolese ex-rebels and their families, AFP news agency quotes the Foreign Ministry as saying.

It adds that the ex-rebels had volunteered to return home five years after they were defeated.

They had all been members of a rebel group called M23.

Read: Ugandan soldiers arrested for ‘assaulting’ policewoman

Ugandan ministry of foreign affairs spokesman Moses Kasujja told AFP that UN officials watched as the group boarded a plane in Uganda’s main airport in Entebbe.

The M23 is made up of fighters who deserted from the Congolese army in April 2012 following a mutiny.

Read: Buhari wins 10 out of 16 declared states, maintains lead over Atiku

They are mostly from the Tutsi ethnic group, a minority in eastern DR Congo but with ties to Rwanda’s leaders.

Several hundred ended up living in a Ugandan-run camp in the west of the country. The 70 who flew back on Tuesday are not the first to go home, with a total of 316 now having been officially repatriated.

 

Source: BBC