Uganda, DRC to re-mark border

2008-05-12 20:14

Kampala - Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo have agreed to re-mark their common border, increasingly the subject of dispute since oil prospecting began on Lake Albert last year.

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni and his Congolese counterpart Joseph Kabila met in the Tanzanian city Dar es Salaam over the weekend to defuse tensions mounting along the frontier over the past two weeks.

"They agreed that as the border remarking takes place, the status quo should be maintained along the common border," a communique released on Monday said. It said both sides would provide logistics to the border marking committee.

Since mid-2007, tensions over the border that runs through Lake Albert have been mounting, where Canada's Heritage Oil and Ireland's Tullow Oil are prospecting.

Congo says the companies, with Ugandan concessions, are working illegally in its waters. Congo has awarded prospecting rights claimed by Tullow to a rival consortium.

Last year, a Heritage contractor died when Ugandan troops and Congolese soldiers fought on the lake.

The two nations have had ragged relations for years. Uganda twice invaded Congo, saying it was chasing Ugandan rebels. The second foray sparked a 1998-2003 war in Congo that drew in five other countries.

- Reuters