(PHOTO: Congolese refugees fleeing M18 crowd the Bubukwanga refugee transit center in Uganda yesterday)
The tweep @ChangeIA (Change in Africa) exclaimed several hours ago in reaction to the Ugandan Daily Monitor story about a rebel outfit calling itself M18 that had "launched offensive attacks on [...] local communities" in Ituri that had resulted in hundreds of Congolese refugees crossing into Uganda: "apparently M=Murderer in #DRC."
(http://www.monitor.co.ug/News/National/500-refugees-enter-Uganda-as-fresh-fighting-erupts-in-Congo/-/688334/2049516/-/fotgh7/-/index.html)
Reading this comment, Sue Grafton's alphabet murder mysteries leaped to mind--except that here the ticking alphabet is forever stuck at the letter M, which is not for malice, but for mass murderers.
This particular copycat outfit, which also calls itself the United Congolese People's Army, apparently preys on the minority Kakwa speaking people saddling South Sudan, Uganda, and DRC.
According to the Ugandan daily New Vision, the leader of M18 used to live quietly in Kampala while carrying out his warmongering activities in the Congo:
"The M18 shot to the limelight on March 16, 2013 when their alleged leader, Lt. Col. Zachariah Ndamire Ndozi alias Eric, was abducted from him home in Bunga Makindye division in Kampala reportedly by officers commanded by UPDF soldier Col. Fenekansi Mugyeni to be secretly handed over to the Congolese intelligence officers."
Adding:
"The operation was scuttled when the abductors and Eric were intercepted in West Nile before his handover."
(http://www.newvision.co.ug/news/648848-thousands-of-congolese-flee-m18-attacks-to-uganda.html)
Well, Ituri residents would like to have the Ugandan government update them on the whereabouts of this murderous warlord...
Anyway, this fresh development casts a long shadow over the jubilation triggered by the recent debacle of M23. And some Kinshasa conspiracy theorists are already wondering whether this new "M" outfit wasn't expressly manufactured by the "international community" to ensure that the balkanization of the DRC keeps on track.
As one man quipped in a crowded taxi-bus this morning, "Pretty soon we'd be heading back to Kampala for peace talks with M18!"
.***
PHOTO CREDITS; Photo byFelix Basiime via monitor.co.ug