A recent incident on Lake Albert, bordering Uganda and the DRC, in which six Congolese nationals were reportedly killed by Ugandan troops, led the DRC to send a strong protest note to both Uganda and the UN mission (MONUC) in the DRC
MONUC said that there had been two “separate incidents on Monday at Lake Albert. Ambassaor William Swing, the representative of the UN in the DRC is investigating the incident and has promised to file a report as soon as it is ready. Major Gabriel de BROSSES is MONUC’S military spokesman in Kinshasa.
He told VOA reporter Akwei Thompson that “..the outcome of the disastrous encounter is that we found out that the 24th of September when the Congolese boat arrived in Kasenyi, on board there were six Congolese citizens who had been killed – three men and two women and a child. “ … and there were also five others that had been injured.” Major de Brosses refuted with reports of the impounding of a vessel belonging to Heritage Oil Corp which is conducting oil exploration for the Ugandan government..“
Basically, the boat was not impounded. It was found in Congolese waters and brought to Kasenyi by the Uruguan blue helmets unit…” he said. Gabriel de BROSSES said the vessel was sent back to Ugandan waters an hour later.