Sudan says complaint against Uganda included in ICGLR report
March 3, 2013 (KHARTOUM) – The Sudanese government has hailed as a victory in having its complaint against Uganda included in a report on stability and security issued by the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR).
This week Burundi hosted the 12-member ICGLR ministerial meeting with focus on achieving regional stability.
Sudan was represented by its foreign ministry undersecretary Salah Wansi who held bilateral meetings with the Ugandan foreign minister as well as with the ICGLR executive secretary Alphonse Ntumba Luaba to show proof of support by Kampala to anti-Khartoum rebels.
Sudan’s official news agency (SUNA) quoted the foreign ministry’s acting undersecretary Omer Sideeg as saying that Uganda made “several failed attempts” to have Khartoum’s complaints dismissed at the ICGLR.
Sideeg disclosed that another ICGLR meeting will be held in Angola next July to discuss Uganda’s alleged support to Sudanese rebels.
Khartoum and Kampala have a long history of troubled relations over alleged support to rebel groups on both sides of their borders.
Kampala says that Khartoum is still providing support and refuge to the notorious Ugandan rebels, the Lord Resistance Army (LRA), even after South Sudan’s secession created a buffer zone between Sudan and Uganda.
Khartoum on the other hand says that Kampala has become a safe harbour for Sudanese rebel leaders. A recent report published on US news website McClatchy by Alan Boswell speaks of seeing munitions crates carrying the tag of the Ugandan ministry of defence in the hands of the rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N) in South Kordofan.
Last January, Sudanese opposition parties and rebel groups signed a charter in Kampala, putting their stated goal to topple the Khartoum government via different political and military means.
This triggered Sudan to lodge three complaints against Uganda with the African Union (AU), Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) and ICGLR.
Last month Sudan voiced its objection to Uganda’s election to a position at the Organization of the Islamic Cooperation (OIC) and insisted on including its accusations against Kampala.
(ST)