Alliot-Marie will travel on Thursday to the Ugandan port city of Entebbe, the operational headquarters for the European Union force in the flashpoint town of Bunia in northeastern DRC, before heading to Bunia on August 1.

She and her Belgian counterpart Andre Flahaut will spend five hours visiting with troops deployed to secure Bunia, where inter-ethnic clashes left hundreds of people dead and tens of thousands displaced in May alone.

Later that day, the French minister will return to Entebbe for talks with Ugandan authorities and a visit to the headquarters for the peacekeeping operation codenamed "Artemis".

On August 2, Alliot-Marie will travel to the DRC capital Kinshasa for talks with high-level officials before heading back to Paris.

WAR.WIRE