Rukwanzi Island is a territory of Uganda
Forumists, 1/7 When one takes a closer look at the open source satellite imagery of the Uganda/DRC border, it seems that Rukwanzi Island is not part of Uganda. The Island appears to be 0.89 km inside DRC territory. This is according to Google Earth imagery (provided by among others, NASA). Look at the attachment to this message showing two Google Earth extracts of the Lake Mwitanzige (Albert) basin taken at different altitudes, very close to the mouth of River Semliki. The yellow line is the international boundary with DRC. [...] 5/7 There were several press reports indicating that locals in the lake basin know the island to be on the Uganda side because they have always fished there. This is only testimony to the inconveniences that Berlin borders have visited upon communities in frontier zones but not a confirmation of where Rukwanzi belongs. All of us know the Kitgum frontier zone with Sudan: it is called Ngom Orom, i.e., the land that belongs to all, or put differently, to-whom-it-may-concern-territory. [...] 7/7 It may be dangerous for us to assume that Rukwanzi is in Uganda, when it may not be. We should not hope that DRC authorities will remain as sleepy as they have been for many years. If we are right, it may be advisable that, Google Maps is alerted to the extent to which it is misrepresenting the country’s frontiers: if a DRC researcher looks at that map the way it is now, it may be a source of embarrasment. A bid by Uganda to swallow that bead could easily cause severe choking.