Dozens of fleeing M23 rebels held in Uganda following clashes in DR Congo

Dozens of fighters from the M23 rebel group are being held in Uganda.

The fighters fled from the Democratic Republic of Congo this week, after clashing with troops between Monday to Wednesday, in a territory in DRC’s north Kivu province near the border with Uganda.

Uganda’s military spokesperson, Richard Karemire said the rebels are being held at a camp in the southwestern town of Kisoro.

Authorities in DRC have said Uganda was allowing M23 rebels to slip back into eastern DRC to revive their insurgency, but, Ugandan authorities have rejected the accusations.

Earlier this month DRC’s foreign minister, Leonard She Okitundu, told the UN Security Council that a re-emergence of the M23 rebellion would endanger a deal with the opposition intended to lead to presidential elections this year.

Before its defeat in a joint offensive by UN and Congolese forces in 2013, M23 was the strongest rebellion in the mineral-rich eastern DRC, where as many as 70 armed groups continue to operate more than a decade after the end of the country’s civil war.