M23 ended their insurgency in 2013
KAMPALA, Feb 27 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Uganda’s government has repatriated 70 Congolese ex-rebels and their families, the Foreign Ministry said.
It adds that the ex-rebels had volunteered to return home five years after they were defeated.
They had all been members of a rebel group called M23.
Ugandan ministry of foreign affairs spokesman Moses Kasujja said that UN officials watched as the group boarded a plane in Uganda’s main airport in Entebbe.
The M23 is made up of fighters who deserted from the Congolese army in April 2012 following a mutiny.
They are mostly from the Tutsi ethnic group, a minority in eastern DR Congo but with ties to Rwanda’s leaders.
Several hundred ended up living in a Ugandan-run camp in the west of the country. The 70 who flew back on Tuesday are not the first to go home, with a total of 316 now having been officially repatriated. — NNN-AGENCIES
