President Yoweri Museveni has made a surprise visit to the war zone in South Sudan where the UPDF have been engaged in fighting with rebels led by Riek Machar who are opposed to the government of President Salva Kiir.
Museveni’s visit comes in the wake of a stern warning by the United States and IGAD member countries for Uganda to withdraw her forces to facilitate negotiations in Addis Ababa.
This week, > but the UPDF has reportedly not engaged in fighting against Machar rebels in the last few days when they have taken over the oil city of Malakal.
Violence broke out in the South Sudan capital, Juba in mid-December last year and later spread to three of its ten states as forces loyal to President Salva Kiir battled anti-government elements linked to the country’s former vice-president, Riek Machar.
The power struggle between the two erstwhile allies triggered weeks of bloodshed in the world’s youngest nation, killing thousands of people and displacing nearly a million others.
Trade between Uganda and South Sudan has been affected resulting in a loss of billions of shillings by traders and in tax revenue.
The President later made a brief working visit to Juba the capital of South Sudan where he was received at the Juba International Airport yesterday by the Foreign Minister of South Sudan Dr. Barnaba Marial Benjamin Bil.
President Museveni held bilateral discussions with his counterpart South Sudanese President Salva Kiir.
UPDF was deployed in South Sudan at the invitation of the government of South Sudan to primarily protect key installations and to ease safe evacuation of the Uganda nationals in South Sudan during the conflict.
During the 4th Northern Corridor Integration Summit held at Munyonyo on 19th Feb, 2014, Museveni said that Rwanda had agreed to send peace-keeping forces South Sudan.
