DRC, Uganda clash claims 6

2007-09-26 14:37

Kinshasa - The Democratic Republic of Congo protested to Uganda on Wednesday after six Congolese nationals were killed and five injured by Ugandan troops on Lake Albert, marking the border between the two countries.

A ministry statement delivered to the Ugandan embassy in Kinshasa said: "In the face of these serious acts resulting from irresponsible and unacceptable behaviour by the Ugandan army, the DRC foreign ministry expresses the strongest protest of the government."

The United Nations mission in the DRC, Monuc, said on Tuesday that there had been "two separate incidents" on Monday at Lake Albert, a region where oil was recently discovered.

Monuc's military spokesperson Gabriel de Brosses said: "There was a firefight on Monday afternoon on Lake Albert in which six Congolese were killed and five were wounded."

40 passengers open fire

De Brosses said the dead included a Congolese soldier, two other men, two women and a child.

According to witnesses speaking to the UN-backed Okapi radio, eight Ugandan soldiers on a motorised dinghy approached a civilian boat carrying about 40 passengers and opened fire after two Congolese soldiers aboard refused to give up their weapons.

A Ugandan army spokesperson said earlier that two Congolese soldiers and one Ugandan soldier had died in a clash in Ugandan waters of the lake, involving a barge belonging to Canada's Heritage Oil Corp.

But Heritage said its vessel was not involved.

Heritage said its vessel was "within Ugandan waters in Lake Albert in the process of lifting cables to mark the completion of a seismic survey" when a UN patrol boat detained the ship and its crew.

'No employees involved'

A statement said: "This was a routine check, not hostile, and there was full co-operation. After a short interview at shore, the vessel and crew were released and returned to base in Uganda."

It added that the clash between border forces was a "separate, unrelated, isolated incident. No employees or sub-contractors of Heritage were involved".

The company challenged a UN official, who said the oil exploration vessel was escorted out of "Congolese waters" to "avoid increasing tensions" between the two nations and "to ensure the crew's safety".

In a second episode, according to the UN, Uruguayan soldiers belonging to Monuc discovered the Heritage vessel on the DRC side of the lake and escorted it to a Congolese border town, according to Michel Bonnardeaux, Monuc spokesperson for civilian affairs.

He said no violence took place at that time.

The Ugandan army spoke earlier of one incident involving the Heritage vessel in which three soldiers, two Congolese and one Ugandan, had died.

Kicoco Tabaro, army spokesperson for western Uganda, insisted that the vessel belonging to Canada's Heritage Oil Corp had been on the Ugandan side of Lake Albert after it was seized and commandeered to the Congolese side.

- AFP