Foreign Troops Leaving Congo

Uganda and Zimbabwe have begun their pledged troop withdrawals from Congo, a rare concrete step toward ending Central Africa’s four-year, six-nation war, the United Nations confirmed Wednesday.

Both nations--enemies in the Congo war--have pulled out hundreds of troops in recent days, U.N. mission spokesman Hamadoun Toure said here in the Congolese capital.

“We hope all the parties will do the same. We very much hope in the days to come the foreign military presence will become no more than a memory,” Toure said.

On Tuesday, Uganda withdrew 242 of its estimated 2,000 troops in this country from the town of Beni in rebel-held northeastern Congo, Toure said. He added that an unknown number of Ugandan troops also have left the northern town of Gbadolite.

From government-allied western Congo, Zimbabwe has brought home hundreds of its troops, Toure said. Zimbabwe was believed to have 12,000 troops in Congo.

Congo’s war has split the country into government-held zones and rebel-and foreign-occupied zones. What some call Africa’s first world war has killed an estimated 2.5 million people, most of whom succumbed to disease or famine brought on or worsened by the conflict.

Peace efforts have moved forward under Congo’s current leader, President Joseph Kabila, who came to power after his father, Laurent Kabila, was assassinated in 2001.

Namibia pulled out its relatively few troops last year. Angola, once a major force on the government side of the war, now has only a “symbolic” troop presence in Congo, the U.N. mission says. Only Rwanda, with an estimated 30,000 troops in eastern Congo, has yet to comply with promises to pull out.