Uganda has handed over nearly 100 Congolese police officers who had fled clashes between the M23 rebels and the DR Congo army in North Kivu province in early August.

The officers were handed over on Friday, August 16, along with their weapons, ammunition and other arms, a statement by Major Kiconco Tabaro, a Ugandan military spokesperson, Reuters reported.

The officers had crossed Ishasha border, into Kanungu District in southwestern Uganda.

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The regional army spokesperson said the police officers’ national identities had been confirmed, and that they had been allowed to enter Uganda as an act of humanity and in line with international law.

Tabaro said that refugees continued to flow over the Ugandan border to escape the ongoing violence in eastern DR Congo, where the army has been fighting the M23 rebels since November 2021.

It was not the first time Congolese officers crossed into Uganda due to the M23 rebels. In June 2022, the rebels forced hundreds of Congolese soldiers to flee into Uganda after they had captured the border town of Bunagana.

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A ceasefire, negotiated in Luanda, Angola, has been in place since August 5. Despite losing swathes of territory in North Kivu to the M23, the Congolese government has turned down the rebels’ offer of peace talks.

Fighting between the Congolese army and the M23 began in November 2021 in North Kivu province, after the rebel group said the government had reneged on its promises to sign agreements that would see its combatants reintegrated into the army.

The rebels also said the government had failed to neutralise the FDLR, a militia linked to the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda and which has spread a genocide ideology and hate speech against Congolese Tutsi communities.