>On the face of it, Uganda’s intervention in eastern Congo is less controversial than that of M23 and Rwanda. The government in Kinshasa has condemned M23’s advance farther south as an invasion. A peace deal with Rwanda in June and an agreement with M23 on July 19th are supposed to restore Congolese control over the area.
>Congo first invited Ugandan troops in 2021 to help it fight jihadists affiliated with Islamic State (IS). General Muhoozi Kainerugaba, Uganda’s army chief (and a son of the president), flew to Kinshasa in June for a meeting that officially expanded that operation to Ituri. In public, Congolese officials play up Uganda’s role as an important security partner. In practice, the Congolese government probably had little choice but to accept Uganda’s decision to send more troops earlier this year.
>Ituri is rich in gold, much of it smuggled out through Uganda. It also has oil and gas deposits that Uganda is exploiting from its side of the border. Following M23’s advance in February in North and South Kivu, south of Ituri, Uganda has increased its deployment to around 6,000 troops to protect its interests in the wider region, without asking Congo’s permission, according to UN security officials and the UN report’s authors. “They consider this their backyard,” says a UN official. “Because Congo has become so weak, Congo has allowed them to do this.”
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>Beyond stirring up trouble in Ituri, the Ugandan deployment could end up cementing M23’s hold over the parts of eastern Congo that the government in Kinshasa wants it to relinquish. General Muhoozi, in particular, is friendly with Rwanda. He has praised the M23 rebels and Paul Kagame, Rwanda’s dictator, on social media.
>On July 9th Uganda reopened a border crossing into M23-held territory in North Kivu province, saying that closing it had been “criminal and counterproductive”. In the past, competing Ugandan and Rwandan interests in eastern Congo have escalated into fighting between the two. For now, they appear to be lining up against their neighbour.
>For the full story [Ugandan intervention in Congo risks stoking ethnic violence](https://archive.is/R0Ha1)
bunchtime on
I wonder how big this has to get to have any headlines in the US. Even if you ask the npr listening NYT reading crowd a decent amount wouldn’t know what your talking about when you bring this up
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>On the face of it, Uganda’s intervention in eastern Congo is less controversial than that of M23 and Rwanda. The government in Kinshasa has condemned M23’s advance farther south as an invasion. A peace deal with Rwanda in June and an agreement with M23 on July 19th are supposed to restore Congolese control over the area.
>Congo first invited Ugandan troops in 2021 to help it fight jihadists affiliated with Islamic State (IS). General Muhoozi Kainerugaba, Uganda’s army chief (and a son of the president), flew to Kinshasa in June for a meeting that officially expanded that operation to Ituri. In public, Congolese officials play up Uganda’s role as an important security partner. In practice, the Congolese government probably had little choice but to accept Uganda’s decision to send more troops earlier this year.
>Ituri is rich in gold, much of it smuggled out through Uganda. It also has oil and gas deposits that Uganda is exploiting from its side of the border. Following M23’s advance in February in North and South Kivu, south of Ituri, Uganda has increased its deployment to around 6,000 troops to protect its interests in the wider region, without asking Congo’s permission, according to UN security officials and the UN report’s authors. “They consider this their backyard,” says a UN official. “Because Congo has become so weak, Congo has allowed them to do this.”
…
>Beyond stirring up trouble in Ituri, the Ugandan deployment could end up cementing M23’s hold over the parts of eastern Congo that the government in Kinshasa wants it to relinquish. General Muhoozi, in particular, is friendly with Rwanda. He has praised the M23 rebels and Paul Kagame, Rwanda’s dictator, on social media.
>On July 9th Uganda reopened a border crossing into M23-held territory in North Kivu province, saying that closing it had been “criminal and counterproductive”. In the past, competing Ugandan and Rwandan interests in eastern Congo have escalated into fighting between the two. For now, they appear to be lining up against their neighbour.
>For the full story [Ugandan intervention in Congo risks stoking ethnic violence](https://archive.is/R0Ha1)
I wonder how big this has to get to have any headlines in the US. Even if you ask the npr listening NYT reading crowd a decent amount wouldn’t know what your talking about when you bring this up