Uganda-DR Congo border at standstill over traders anger

ANKARA (AA) - Trade in a Ugandan border town has ground to a halt over businesspeople striking in neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo, fearful of a Ugandan rebel group killing civilians, a Ugandan website reported Wednesday.

In Kasindi, in DR Congo, which borders Mpondwe-Lhubiriha, Uganda, Congolese traders have closed their shops to express their solidarity with their fellow Congolese in the city of Beni, some 55 kilometers (34 miles) northwest, who are protesting what they call the UN failure to protect them from rebel attacks carried out by the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), the Monitor news website reported Wednesday.

Since Saturday most of the Congolese traders who buy Ugandan goods have stopped crossing the Uganda border to protest the ADF killing civilians in the region.

The economic malaise followed the Democratic Republic of the Congo's army saying Saturday it had killed one of the top leaders of the ADF, hours after rebels killed 13 civilians.

“Congolese soldiers killed Mouhamed Mukubwa -- one of the top leaders of the Allied Democratic Forces group during fighting on Friday in Mapobu [forest],” army spokesman Richard Kasonga said on Twitter about the clash in the North Kivu province in the Beni region.

More than 100 civilians have been reportedly killed in attacks since Nov. 5 in the Beni area, according to authorities.

Earlier this month, eight people were killed and nine kidnapped in Masiani in Beni, sparking angry protests where residents stormed local UN facilities.

Protestors accuse the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO) and government forces of failing to protect civilians.

Over the weekend UN Under-Secretary General for Peace Operations Jean-Pierre Lacroix visited Beni to meet with Congolese military forces and visit the MONUSCO base.

The ADF, which for years has been based in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, is made up of several armed groups opposed to Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni.

Before October 2014, the rebels carried out multiple attacks in Beni that left 325 people dead, according to a Human Rights Watch report.

The ADF rebels -- originating in Uganda, Congo’s northeast, in the 1990s -- have been attacking and killing civilians in the eastern DRC for over two decades.

The ADF rebels have set aside their political demands, as they are mostly involved in trafficking of minerals in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, which is rich in gold.