Uganda Peoples Defence Force (UPDF) will officially redeploy in war ravaged South Sudan.
According to a statement released today, the redeployment will be carried out in respect to the provisions of the August 2015 peace agreement which among other things demanded for UPDF’s withdrawal.
This comes after President Museveni and other African leaders on Monday backed plans to deploy regional troops in Africa’s youngest nation after recent fighting.
More than 300 people have died in the latest clashes between forces loyal to South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir and his rival, Vice President Riek Machar.
Now majority soldiers for the African Union (AU) force are to come from Uganda while supplementary troops will be drawn from Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda and Sudan.
A 12,000-strong UN peacekeeping force is already in the country, but the AU force would have stronger mandate, officials said.
South Sudan’s president has been reluctant to allow in foreign troops.
On Sunday, President Museveni also said he was opposed to a UN plan to impose an arms embargo to South Sudan, saying it would weaken the country’s army just as it was trying to contain a resurgence of violence.
Uganda first sent troops into South Sudan to back Kiir during the last conflict, which started in December 2013, and sent troops back again during this month’s resurgence in fighting, saying they would rescue Ugandan citizens there.
A year ago, the South Sudanese peace agreement brokered by the East African regional bloc, IGAD, and signed by top rival leaders, President Salva Kiir and opposition leader, Riek Machar, only allowed Ugandan troops based in Western Equatoria under the African Union (AU) mandate to continue hunting for rebels of the Ugandan Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) under the leadership of Joseph Kony.
