The Ugandan Army has deployed its soldiers to a city in northeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) to support Congolese troops in their escalating conflict with an armed group that has left over 100 people dead in the past two weeks, a military spokesperson confirmed to EFE on Wednesday.

“There have been no clashes, but we have entered the city of Bunia,” Ugandan Army spokesperson Felix Kulayigye told EFE in a brief statement.

Bunia is the administrative capital of Ituri province, where around 100 people have been killed in recent weeks by the Cooperative for the Development of Congo (Codeco), a rebel group responsible for a new wave of violence in the region.

Codeco claims to represent the Lendu (farmer) community and was formed as an armed group in 2018 to fight against alleged abuses by the Congolese army.

Some of the worst massacres carried out by Codeco are believed to have been reprisals against the Popular Front for Self-Defense of Ituri (FPAC-Zaire), a rival armed group that describes itself as a self-defense force for the Hema (herder) community against Codeco attacks.

The recent massacres have occurred as the Congolese army battles the M23 rebel group in the eastern provinces of North Kivu and South Kivu.

The M23 insurgents, backed by Rwanda, have seized control of both provincial capitals, raising fears of a potential regional war.

Ugandan forces have already been operating in eastern DRC since November 2021, when they launched a joint military operation with the Congolese Armed Forces to fight the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF)—a Ugandan-origin militia with alleged ties to the Islamic State (ISIS).

On January 31, shortly after M23 seized control of Goma, the capital of North Kivu, Uganda announced defensive operations to prevent other rebel groups from advancing into northeastern Uganda.

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