Authorities
in the Democratic Republic of Congo say armed men have crossed into the country
from Uganda and set up bases near the town of Beni.
Teddy
Kataliko, president of Beni's civil society group, says more than 300 men have
crossed into the DRC from the Kasese and Bundibugyo districts in Uganda.
He said 280
of these armed men crossed through the Ruwenzori mountain range and the Kalehaleha
locality before setting up camp at Mumbiri.
According to
Kataliko another smaller group of armed men has also crossed the Ruwenzori
range from Uganda through Kalindera, headed for the Semliki valley to the
south, where the Nzelube and Semliki rivers merge.
Kataliko
alleges they are former members of the M23, a rebel movement consisting mainly
of Kinyarwanda speakers from Congo and Rwanda that was launched in 2012 and
finally driven out of the country in late 2013.
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| M23 rebels enter Goma with no resistance from UN forces in 2013 |
Local
witnesses reported seeing the armed men take off their Ugandan military
uniforms at Mumbiri and enter the forest dressed in civilian clothing.
Another
group of about 100 armed men, alleged by the Congolese government to be Rwandan
troops, crossed into the DRC last week from Rwanda and exchanged fire with
Congolese troops in Nyiragongo territory near the North Kivu provincial capital,
Goma.
One
Congolese soldier was wounded in the firefight.
North Kivu Governor
Julien Paluku linked the incursion to an alleged attempt by M23 to re-launch
its movement under a new name, the Christian Movement for the Reconstruction of
the Congo (MCRC).
Rwandan
authorities have denied their troops crossed into Congo, however the U.N.
stabilization mission in Congo has confirmed armed men in military uniform
crossed into the country from Rwanda last week.