The Senior Presidential Advisor on special operations, Gen. Muhoozi Kainerugaba has described the infamous M23 rebels as brothers, who are fighting for the Tutsi people in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
In a tweet via his handle @mkainerugaba, Gen Muhoozi also downplayed the notion that M23 is a tourist group.
“As for M23, I think it is very, very dangerous for anybody to fight those brothers of ours. They are NOT terrorists! They are fighting for the rights of Tutsi in DRC,” Gen Kainerugaba Tweeted on Sunday.
He later proposed to make peace deliberations between the DRC and the M23 rebel group.
“For my Congolese brothers, I can make peace between you and your brothers M23. Peace is what we need! No matter the colour, tribe, language or religion! God bless East Africa!” Uganda’s First Son added.
Kainerugaba’s comments come a few days after Kenya flagged off her soldiers to fight rebels in the Eastern Congo.
All east African Community Member States, except Rwanda, will soon send a force to fight insurgents in the eastern DRC.
M23 rebels this year captured Bunagana town and Busanza, from government forces.
Eastern DRC has more than 30 rebel groups. Rwanda accuses DRC of giving aid and comfort to FDLR, a HUTU militia, that allegedly caused genocide in Rwanda in 1994.
Earlier this year, the UN group of experts found ‘solid evidence’ that Kigali was supporting M23 fighters despite repeated denials.
The M23 was formed in 2012 claiming to defend the interests of Congolese Tutsis, a group sharing the ethnicity of Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame, against Hutu militias.
Since May, the M23 has waged its most sustained offensive in years, killing dozens and displacing tens of thousands of people. By July, it controlled a territory almost three times as large as it did in March, the UN group said.
The M23’s resurgence has inflamed regional tensions and spurred deadly protests against the UN peacekeeping mission in DRC, which civilians accuse of failing to protect them.
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