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Uganda to start withdrawal of troops from CAR in October

Xinhua, June 28, 2016 Adjust font size:

The Ugandan military on Tuesday said it will starting October this year withdraw its troops hunting down the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebels in the Central African Republic (CAR).

Lt. Col. Paddy Ankunda, the military spokesperson, told Xinhua by telephone that the decision has been taken to start the phased pullout of 2,500 soldiers involved in the African Union (AU)-led Regional Cooperation Initiative for the Elimination of LRA (RCI-LRA) in October till December.

"There is where you reach in a campaign and you have to withdraw. You can't be in an operation for over five years. Our plan is to pull out of CAR before end of this year unless something substantial happens," he said.

The military spokesperson said the LRA has greatly been weakened and has no means to fight.

The AU Peace and Security Council last month requested Ugandan authorities to reconsider their decision to withdraw the soldiers arguing that the move would create a security vacuum, which the LRA and other rebel forces could exploit to escalate their activities in the region.

The Council recommended that the troops' mandate be extended up to May 2017.

The Ugandan authorities however argue that the LRA has been degraded and no longer has means to fight.

The LRA is a Ugandan rebel group which was flashed out of the country in 2006 after a two decade long insurgency that left tens of thousands of people dead and over two million others homeless. Endit