NTOROKO: There is visible heavy deployment in the border districts of Ntoroko and Bundibugyo as Ugandan troops launched a ground offensive in DR Congo to flush out ADF rebels.
On Wednesday at the Ugandan-DR Congo border at Lamia in Bundibugyo, there was heavy deployment of security forces. Trucks carrying UPDF soldiers were seen deployed at strategic points at lamia in Busunga Town Council guarding the border points.
Area residents said they saw large numbers of Ugandan soldiers who walked on foot and a column of armoured vehicles enter the DR Congo through Nobili border post into North Kivu Province.
Some of the UPDF soldiers were also seen camping at Bubandi Primary School in Bubandi Sub-county and Bundingoma Primary School in Bundingoma Sub-county.
Residents yesterday said they now feel secure after the deployment.
Ms Consolato Nanjara, 68, a resident of Basongora Village, said: “When we heard the gunshots being targeted at the rebels, we knew we had been attacked. The news that it was the UPDF’s offensive against ADF brought us relief.”
General Muhoozi Kainerugaba is leading the operation on the Ugandan side.
On Tuesday, Uganda carried both ground and air airstrikes, hitting at least four ADF bases in the DR Congo.
Ground troops were then quickly deployed to rack up the operation.
Uganda accuses the rebel group of carrying out the recent terror bombings in Kampala City and its suburbs and on a bus that was plying the Kampala-Masaka highway, leaving at least seven people dead and tens injured.
The rebel group is also accused of killing 147 people in 30 separate terror attacks in the country between July 2001 and January 2021.