Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF) troops stepped up their deployment in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo on Wednesday, witnesses said, on the second day of an operation against the notorious ADF rebel group launched in cooperation with Kinshasa.
"They are arriving aboard armoured cars, with escorts from members of the local security services," Tony Kitambala, a freelance journalist based in North Kivu province, said at Nobili on the border.
UPDF soldiers were seen crossing there into the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) on Tuesday after their armed forces launched air and artillery strikes from Ugandan territory.
The target is the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) -- a group blamed for massacres in eastern DRC and attacks in the Ugandan capital, and which the Islamic State group claims as an affiliate.
The DRC at the weekend said through a presidential advisor that it approved a Ugandan offer to pursue the ADF on its soil, where the group has holed up since the mid-1990s.
An aid worker in Nobili said "air strikes on ADF positions continued last evening" but the situation was calm on Wednesday.
"This morning (Wednesday), the UPDF (Ugandan armed forces) has been reinforcing its troops with men, ammunition and military trucks," he said.
DRC's army spokesman Leon Richard Kasonga told reporters late Wednesday that "we bombarded terrorist camps in the forest".
"We are on the ground for far-reaching operations," he added, without providing any details about the number of troops being deployed or how long the mission will last.
A senior DRC military officer said Congolese troops were heading towards Beni, the capital of North Kivu province, from neighbouring South Kivu.
The bombardments aimed at several ADF positions in North Kivu and neighbouring Ituri province to the northeast.
On Tuesday, UPDF spokesperson Brig Flavia Byekwaso said the bombardments had successfully hit their targets, and that ground operations would hunt down "terrorists."
