Ugandan troops, deployed by President Yoweri Museveni to back South Sudanese President Salva Kiir in the fight against his sacked deputy Riek Machar, are poised to start leaving South Sudan as part of a peace deal brokered by mediators.
General Katumba Wamala, Chief of Defence Forces of the Ugandan People’s Defence Force (UPDF) said earlier this month Uganda had between 2,000 and 3,000 troops in South Sudan, and had lost nine soldiers. The first troops were to leave Bor, the capital of Jonglei State, on Tuesday (October 20).
The Ugandan soldiers have played a key role in defending the capital Juba and have used helicopter gunships to fend off rebel attacks elsewhere in the country.
As part of a peace deal mediated by regional bloc IGAD and signed in Addis Ababa in August by Kiir and Machar, the Ugandan soldiers were supposed to leave South Sudan earlier this month.
“There is an agreement between the government of South Sudan and the government of Uganda that the UPDF withdraw from South Sudan back to Uganda,” South Sudan government spokesperson Michael Makuei told AFP.
“This process has started today,” he added, explaining that Ugandan troops in Bor, a key town north of Juba, were moving south to the capital where they would link up with other UPDF troops and then leave the country.
“It is a force with a lot of equipment and lot of things that need to be assembled, need to be organised,” he added, hinting the process would not be quick.
The demilitarisation of government-held Juba to allow the return of Machar and his rebel entourage is a key provision of the peace agreement.
The Ugandan soldiers are due to be replaced by a neutral force, while South Sudanese soldiers are to be relocated to barracks outside the city.
