Ex-Congo rebel leader missing, troops seen along border
ABIDJAN- Congo has stepped up border patrols after the former military chief of a once powerful rebel group vanished from a camp for demobilized fighters in neighbouring Uganda, and unidentified soldiers were spotted in the area.
Julien Paluku, governor of the North Kivu province in Congo's volatile east, said Ugandan authorities no longer knew the whereabouts of Sultani Makenga, who was the military chief of the M23 rebellion in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
"We were in contact with the Ugandan intelligence services who confirmed that, since Friday, ex-Colonel Makenga may have fled and the Ugandan services have not been able to locate him," Paluku told Reuters on Saturday.
An official with M23's political wing declined to comment and referred questions about Makenga to the Ugandan authorities. A Ugandan army spokesman said he did not know if Makenga had disappeared but would seek to confirm his whereabouts.
