The Ugandan Army denied on Wednesday plans to send additional troops to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), following international media reports claiming that 1,000 extra soldiers had been deployed.

“We have no plans to send more troops,” said Felix Kulayigye, spokesperson for the Ugandan Armed Forces, in a brief statement to EFE.

This contradicts reports citing diplomatic and UN sources, which suggested that Ugandan forces were heading to the battlefront between M23 rebels and the Congolese Army.

Uganda has been operating in eastern DRC since November 2021, conducting joint military operations with the Congolese Armed Forces (FARDC) against the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF)—a Ugandan-origin militia with loose ties to ISIS. On January 31, 2025, Uganda announced defensive operations in northeastern DRC to prevent further advances by armed groups.

On January 27, the M23 rebels captured Goma, the capital of North Kivu province, a city of 2 million inhabitants and a hub for international NGOs and UN agencies. Despite declaring a unilateral ceasefire on February 3 for humanitarian reasons, M23 resumed fighting on February 5 in Nyabibwe, about 100 kilometers from the capital of South Kivu province.

While the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) estimates 900 deaths, the Congolese government claims that 2,000 bodies have already been buried.

M23, a Tutsi-led rebel group, claims to defend Tutsi communities in DRC following the 1994 Rwandan genocide. The Congolese government accuses Rwanda of backing M23—a claim confirmed by the UN. Meanwhile, Rwanda and M23 accuse the Congolese Army of collaborating with the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR)—a militia founded by 1994 genocide perpetrators. The UN has also confirmed this connection.

Despite the ongoing presence of UN peacekeepers (MONUSCO), eastern DRC remains in turmoil, with a conflict fueled by militias and the Congolese military since 1998.

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