Uganda, DR Congo to survey border

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Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo have agreed to re-survey their common border through Lake Albert.

The Ugandan Defence Minister, Chrispus Kiyonga, said a joint commission will begin surveying within the next three to four weeks.

The exact position of the border has been under increased dispute, with both countries laying claim to an island in the lake called Rukwanzi.

It is a strategic site for oil and exploration is currently under way.

Mr Kiyonga added that Uganda continued to consider Rukwanzi Island to be within Ugandan territory.

<a class="" href="/1/hi/world/africa/6948086.stm">Lake Albert's troubled waters</a>

The border dispute was put under the spotlight earlier this month after two people were killed during a clash between men in Congolese army uniforms and security guards working on an oil exploration barge.

The Congolese said the barge was in their waters; the Canadian oil company Heritage said it was anchored in Ugandan waters.

In a separate incident this month, four Ugandan army soldiers were taken into custody for allegedly trespassing on Congolese territory. They were later released.

Following these events, Ugandan newspapers reported that Congolese troops were massing at the border with Uganda.

Tense relationship

Uganda's Foreign Minister Sam Kutesa flew to DR Congo's capital, Kinshasa, this week to discuss the issue and diffuse the tension.

But the Ugandan army spokesman, Maj Felix Kulayigye, told the BBC that the area was now calm although what he called protective deployments of Ugandan soldiers remained in place.

Oil companies have been working in the region for many years, and in 2006 Heritage and Australia's Hardman Resources announced that they had found substantial deposits in western Uganda.

They believe that more oil may lie beneath the waters of Lake Albert.

Uganda invaded eastern DR Congo in during its neighbour's civil war in 1998, claiming it was pursuing Ugandan rebels.

Some of its soldiers were accused of human rights abuses and of plundering Congolese gold and diamonds.