Late last year, to Rwanda's consternation, the Ugandans aligned themselves with Jean-Pierre Bemba, a Congolese businessman who launched his own rebellion in northern Congo.

ECONOMIST: Uganda and Rwanda: Old friends, new war | The

There was a theatrical air to the opening of the trial of Jean-Pierre Bemba, the former vice-president of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), in The Hague.

BBC: Defiant Jean-Pierre Bemba gets his day in court

But the leader of the Congolese rebel group, the Movement for the Liberation of Congo's (MLC) Jean-Pierre Bemba, denied the allegations in an interview with the BBC's Network Africa programme, saying his troops were more than 20 kilometres outside Bangui.

BBC: Chadians attacked in Bangui