Kenyan General Jeff Nyagah, who has led regional bloc's forces drawn from Burundi, Kenya, Uganda and South Sudan, says he was leaving mission "due to aggravated threat to my safety."
Nyagah says there was a "well-orchestrated and financed negative media campaign" targeting him that aimed to frustrate the efforts of the regional force. / Photo: Reuters
The commander of the East African regional military force created to restore peace in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo [DRC] has resigned, citing threats to his life in a letter seen by the AFP news agency.
Kenyan General Jeff Nyagah, who has led the East African Community [EAC] force drawing on troops from Burundi, Kenya, Uganda and South Sudan since November, said he was leaving the mission "due to aggravated threat to my safety."
"There was an attempt to intimidate my security at my former residence by deploying foreign military contractors [mercenaries] who placed monitoring devices," he said in a letter dated April 27 to the secretary general of the seven-nation bloc.
Nyagah said there was a "well-orchestrated and financed negative media campaign" targeting him that aimed to frustrate the efforts of the regional force.
The volatile and mineral-rich region along the border with Uganda has been wracked by increasing violence involving rebel militias that has ensnared neighbouring countries.
Created last year to stop M23 rebels who seized swathes of territory in the eastern DRC, the EAC force is operating in areas that it says have been lib erated from the militia.
But many locals are disappointed the force is not taking the fight directly to the rebels and say the M23 continues to operate with impunity.
Kenyan Major General Alphaxard Muthuri Kiugu is set to replace Nyagah has who been redeployed, according to changes announced on Friday by the Kenya Defence Forces.
The total size of the EAC force is unclear.