UGANDA

COMPENDIUM OF CONFLICTS IN UGANDA
9. Uganda-Congo Conflict (1965 – present)
Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) have been engaged in conflict
since the 1960s largely due to various incidents in which political and military leaders
have been accused of border trespassing and the plundering of natural resources. In
1965, then army Commander Idi Amin was implicated in looting ivory and gold from the
DRC during the first Obote administration. 100
Subsequent accusations of illegal border incursions
have heightened distrust between the two nations.
Accusations of resource plundering emerged strongly
in the second half of the 1990s, during the Uganda
People’s Defence Forces (UPDF) operations against rebel
groups based in the DRC. 101 Indeed, a UN Panel of Experts
established to look into the illegal exploitation of natural
resources and other forms of wealth of the DRC found
that Ugandan Government structures and top army
commanders were involved in mass scale looting and
illegal systematic and systemic resource exploitation. 102
More recently, the discovery of oil and plans for its
exploitation around Lake Albert in Buliisa and Hoima
Districts have led to further disputes. 103 People from
these border areas demand that the Government not
only focus on oil exploration, but also address conflict
with neighbouring DRC; some Congolese have abducted
Ugandans fishing on Lake Albert and around the oil rich
areas, claiming they are trespassing, and this in turn has
led to several Ugandan threats and counterattacks. The
governments of both the DRC and Uganda have been
fighting armed rebellions for years, and have accused
each other of supporting some of those rebel groups. 104
Additionally, the porous Uganda-DRC border is a security
threat that can precipitate violence, as rebels can decide
to hide across the border and launch attacks from there.
The shift of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) into
northeastern DRC in 2008 is one such example, and
Congolese attacks against Ugandans at the border have
100 Uzoigwe, G.N. (1982) Uganda: The dilemma of nationhood. United States, NOK Publishers International
Ltd
101 Mutibwa, P. (1992) Uganda since independence. Kampala, Fountain Publishers Ltd.
102 Research conducted in Luwero and Hoima Districts
103 Report of the Panel of Experts on the Illegal Exploitation of Natural Resources and Other Forms of Wealth
of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, S/2001/357
104 International Crisis Group. (2012) Black gold in the Congo: Threat to stability or development opportunity?
Africa report no. 188. [Internet], 11 July. Available from: < http://www.crisisgroup.org/en/publicationtype/media-releases/2012/africa/congo-black-gold-in-the-congo-threat-to-stability-or-developmentopportunity.aspx>
[Accessed 27 May 2014].
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