Why Uganda–Congo relationship will remain sour.

The hunter is now the hunted. Everyone knows that Uganda is a Military power force in the great Lakes Region, isn’t it? So why is Congo behaving so stubbornly? Why is the Lion so much despised by the antelopes? Who is the King of the jungle, Congo or Uganda?
Should we believe that there is a shift in the balance of power in favor of Congo?I think the root cause of the tension between these two neighboring countries is the discovery of oil.
It has soured the already volatile relationship between Uganda and Congo. Congo too believes that it has a big share of oil reserves under her Lake Albert waters.
Therefore, there is a feeling that if Uganda begins exploiting oil first, it will automatically be exploiting Congo’s oil since the two countries seem to share the same oil source.
The country exploiting oil first is likely to benefit much more than the other and that’s why Congo is ready to delay oil exploration by keeping the Albertine region insecure.

Rukwanzi Island. Uganda believes this disputed area belongs to Uganda.
The Congolese government too believes the island belongs to Congo. The Island is rich with resources like oil and fish.
Ugandans once inhabited the island but left it on orders of the Ugandan government in 1980s after it was found that the island could disappear in water. The Congolese saw this as an opportunity, they occupied the island and set up a military barracks.
I find this strange; if Ugandans left the island due to our fears why claim it now? I think this excuse is just strange; we should just blame ourselves for leaving. We were just postponing problems.

Now Rukwanzi Island, in the southern part of Lake Albert, is at the heart of a fire fight between DR Congo government troops and Ugandan forces, which has left a British contractor dead.Carl Nefdt worked for Heritage Oil, one of two companies prospecting for oil in the area.

He died when Congolese forces attacked a Heritage Oil barge – a long boat with a flat bottom, used for carrying heavy loads on rivers or canals – on Lake Albert. The Congolese armed forces have now occupied the disputed Rukwanzi Island, a move likely to further escalate tensions with Uganda.
Unless this issue is resolved these area will have no permanent peace.

President Kabila not a Congole. Very many Congolese believe President kabila is not a Congole. They think he is a Rwandan of Banyamulenge origin. To win their hearts, Kabila has to fight for their territorial integrity by taking over Rukwanzi Island. Therefore if Congolese see Kabila in conflict with Uganda and Rwanda there is no reason to doubt his nationality.

Bemba Factor. During last year’s elections in Congo, Uganda indirectly supported Bemba against Kabila, He lost elections but Jean-Pierre Bemba's camp said that the results, which gave incumbent Joseph Kabila a win, were fraudulent.
Bemba continued causing havoc in Kinshasa. Kabila defeated him militarily and he fled to Portugal where he is now nursing the wounds. There is a possibility that Bemba will still come back, as a former rebel leader. It’s also still possible that Uganda will support him to stage a guerilla war from Eastern Congo, which has a tradition for lawlessness.

LRA likely to join the fray. If Uganda continues its support for Bemba, there is a possibility that Lord Resistance Rebels of Joseph Kony who have got a safe heaven in Eastern Congo will find it easy to convince President Kabila to help them to continue terrorizing Uganda as a revenge on Uganda government for supporting Bemba.

This is likely to put the Juba peace talks between Uganda and the LRA rebels in limbo.

President Yoweri Museven has often protested against the presence of LRA rebels in Eastern Congo and he once made ‘inflammatory’ statement that Ugandan forces would be deployed to the volatile eastern Congo, unless Kinshasa government and the UN peace mission (MONUC) dealt with members of the LRA who had fled there.

But instead Congo has given a soft landing to LRA. Questions whether Congo government supports LRA still linger in Ugandan mind.

Twenty one years of warfare by the LRA has devastated northern Uganda and displaced more than 1.6 million people, causing one of the world's worst humanitarian crises. More than 10,000 children have been kidnapped by the rebels and forced to become fighters, porters and sex slaves. Uganda, at one point, chased the LRA up to the Sudan, with Khartoum's permission but never routed them.

There is much to fear, if Uganda re-enter Congo Rwanda is likely to do the same, as Congo also houses the Interehamwe Rebels who have terrorized Rwanda using Congo as their base.


UN-siding with kabila.? What is surprising the Ugandan government is that the UN hasn’t come up to condemn the Kinshasa government.

Congo also think that UN has failed to hold Rwanda and Uganda directly and unequivocally responsible for abuses committed by their own troops or by the forces of the factions they support in areas under their respective control especially during the 1996 Uganda-Rwanda invasion of Congo.

Despite UN deploying its largest peace keeping force in Congo, the mineral-rich eastern part of Congo, bordering Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi, remains the most unstable area in the country, with violence breaking out regularly that often pits rival militias, including groups from neighboring countries, against each other and leaving civilians dead.

Great Lake conflicts continue to present the biggest security crisis in the continent, contributing to the worsening of the humanitarian situation in much of central, southern and Eastern Africa.