Tororo county MP and shadow minister for Finance Geofrey Ekanya said President Yoweri Museveni is dragging Uganda into the war in the Democratic Republic of Congo for his own selfish interests.

 

Ekanya told journalists that he has seen a UN report which makes serious allegations and that the president needs to come out and address these allegations.

 

The report, he says, alleges that Uganda and Rwanda want to divide Congo into two with the help of some super powers and that will have long term implications for Uganda.

“We don’t want to be involved in people’s wars especially the wars which are going to affect our economic growth badly,” he said.

He says Uganda’s involvement in Congo contradicts government’s decision to focus on regional trade to boost economic growth. “We cannot talk of regional trade when we are conflicting with the biggest importers of our goods,” said Ekanya.

He says the conflict will retard economic growth because unemployment levels will rise, tax collections will reduce and Uganda’s earnings from exports will reduce.

Ekanya said he is collecting signatures to demand that the president comes out within two weeks and explain Uganda’s involvement in Congo.

The war in Congo intensified last week when the Hutu rebels captured the Bunagana boarder a situation that has resulted into high refugee influx into Uganda..