Kampala (EFE).- The Ugandan People’s Defense Forces (UPDF) killed 242 militiamen from the armed group Congo Economic Development Cooperative (CODECO) this week after they attacked a Ugandan military camp in Ituri province, northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
According to UPDF spokesman Chris Magezi, hundreds of CODECO rebels launched successive attacks on Ugandan soldiers at their military base in Fataki town on Wednesday and Thursday “in an attempt to dislodge it,” but, he confirmed, “were repulsed on each occasion with the group sustaining heavy casualties in the process.”
On Wednesday, at least 31 rebels were killed in the fighting, and 211 more on Thursday morning.
Meanwhile, the Ugandan army reported one casualty and four soldiers wounded in the clashes, Magezi posted on his X on Friday afternoon.
Magezi explained that the UPDF deployed to the area “a few weeks ago” to prevent remnants of the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), considered a terrorist organization by the Ugandan government and the United States, “from infiltrating the area while escaping mounting pressure from the t forces of UPDF and FARDC under Operation Shujaa.”
“The CODECO militias recently struck a pact with the ADF terrorist group and have over the last few months stepped up violent attacks against other Congolese communities in the Ituri Province region, especially those from the Hema ethnic group,” the military spokesman said.
“The massacres at the hands of ruthless CODECO militias have left hundreds of Hema people dead, mainly women and children. Entire habitat villages have been left torched, looted, and destroyed,” he denounced.
CODECO claims to represent the Lendu (peasant) community, formed as an armed group in 2018 to fight abuses by the Congolese army.
The Ugandan army deployed its soldiers to Bunia, the istrative capital of Ituri, in February to Congolese troops in the escalating conflict against the armed group, which has left about 100 people dead in recent weeks.
However, the UPDF has been present in eastern DRC since November 2021, when it launched a t military operation with the Congolese army against the ADF.
On Jan. 31, 2024, shortly after the M23 took control of Goma, the capital of North Kivu, Uganda announced defensive operations to prevent the advance of other rebel groups in the country’s northeast. EFE
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