KAMPALA (Reuters) – Uganda’s army said it killed 242 fighters belonging to a Congolese rebel group known as CODECO after they attacked a Ugandan military camp across the border in east Congo earlier this week, a claim disputed by the group.
Uganda military spokesperson Chris Magezi said hundreds of CODECO fighters attacked a Uganda Peoples’ Defence Forces (UPDF) military post in the Congo locality of Fataki, in the province of Ituri, on Wednesday and Thursday.
The army retaliated on both occasions, killing 31 militants on the first day and 211 on the second day, Magezi said in a post on X late on Friday.
One UPDF soldier was killed and four others injured, he added.
CODECO spokesperson Basa Zukpa Gerson refuted the army’s account on Saturday, saying that the group only lost two fighters and that the UPDF death toll was higher.
A United Nations source who did not wish to be named said 70 rebels and 12 Ugandan troops were killed.
There were further clashes between the two sides on Saturday morning, CODECO and a local civil society leader said.
CODECO fighters say their aim is to defend Lendu farmers from Hema herders, which have historically clashed over land.
The group is one of a myriad of militias fighting over land and mineral resources in east Congo, where Rwanda-backed M23 rebels have stepped up an offensive this year and made unprecedented gains.
The conflict, rooted in the fallout from Rwanda’s 1994 genocide and competition for mineral riches such as tantalum and gold, is eastern Congo’s worst since a 1998-2003 war that drew in multiple neighbouring countries and left millions dead.
Uganda sent troops to Congo in 2021 to help the government fight another rebel group, the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), which is affiliated with the Islamic State and stages brutal attacks on villages.
UPDF troops were deployed to northern Ituri a few weeks ago to prevent the ADF from infiltrating the area, and to stop hundreds of Congo refugees from fleeing into Uganda, Magezi said.
(Reporting by Elias Birayabarema; Additional reporting by Sonia Rolley and Congo newsroom; Writing by George Obulutsa; Editing by Sofia Christensen and Tomasz Janowski)
