Uganda to pull troops out of South Sudan

By Halima Athumani

KAMPALA, Uganda

Uganda is to withdraw peacekeeping troops from neighboring South Sudan within a month, the head of the Ugandan military said Monday.

“As I speak now, the Chief of Land Forces Maj. Gen. David Muhoozi is in Juba working out the details and modalities of the disengagement and the withdrawal of the troops,” Chief of Defense Forces Gen. Katumba Wamala said.

“If all other factors remain even, then we should be out of South Sudan by the first week of November. This is because it’s not a question of running away but a matter of organized withdrawal.”

The announcement came shortly after a leading rebel leader in South Sudan said his group is likely to return to war two months after a peace deal. The BBC reported Gen. Johnson Olony as saying August’s deal with the government was “unlikely to work”.

Uganda sent troops into South Sudan in December 2013 when fighting broke out between forces loyal to President Salva Kiiir and former Vice President Riek Machar. It currently has a reinforced brigade of up to 3,000 troops there.

The Ugandan soldiers were able to prevent a massacre in the town of Bor but tens of thousands of people have been killed in fighting and millions displaced.

The withdrawal complies with the Addis Ababa peace agreement signed in August. A UN Security Council resolution signed last week authorizes a 14,000-strong UN mission in South Sudan to protect civilians and monitor the peace deal.

However, Olony’s suggestion of a return to war threatens the agreement signed by Kiir and Machar.

Kiir told the Washington Times he had signed the peace deal under pressure from the international community and said it undermined South Sudan´s sovereignty.

“I did not accede to this deal because it is perfect - indeed, the plan undermines the sovereignty and democratic institutions of our nation,” he said.

South Sudan, which gained its independence in 2011, was plunged into violence two years later when Kiir accused Machar of attempting to overthrow him. Several peace deals have been signed over the course of the conflict. All failed amid either side accusing the other of breaching cease-fires.