Africa News

Congo, Uganda leaders to meet over disputed border area

Aug 20, 2007, 14:07 GMT

Kampala, Uganda - Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) will meet at the end of the month to resolve a border dispute between the two states amid growing tension over the frontier, Uganda said Monday.

Uganda and the DRC have of recent been feuding in the wake of oil and gas discoveries in Uganda'?s western region under and along the shores of Lake Albert which is shared between the two countries.

The move to meet over the border dispute was agreed to after Uganda's Foreign Minister Sam Kutesa held talks with his Congolese counterpart earlier this month.

'Kutesa was in Kinshasa and went with suggestions to Congolese President Joseph Kabila that would help resolve the problems. Kabila will hold a one-day summit with (Ugandan President) Yoweri Museveni in Kampala at the end of this month,' said Uganda's deputy foreign minister Henry Okello-Oryem.

Four Ugandan soldiers were held by the Congolese army on Lake Albert's waters for trespassing in July and a British oil worker was later killed in the same place when the Congolese military attacked a Canadian oil exploration barge.

Uganda complains that the Congolese army has occupied the disputed Rukwanza island on the lake. Both countries claim the tiny island belongs to them.

The Ugandan government is also expected to tell Kabila to find ways of disarming armed groups fighting Kampala from bases in the north-east of the DRC, the minister said.

Uganda entered the Congo in 1998, accusing the government of harbouring anti-government rebels that were attacking it. The military move was part of Congo's 1998-2003 civil war which roped in seven foreign armies and saw up to 4 million people killed, mostly from hunger and disease.