A Ugandan Muslim sheikh and 17 others have been charged with killing two fellow clerics, a case police said Friday is linked to Islamist rebels in Democratic Republic of Congo.

"There's a link definitely to the Allied Democratic Forces," police spokesman Fred Enanga told Agence France Presse, referring to the small group of Ugandan-led ADF rebels, who have terrorized pockets of eastern DR Congo for the last two decades.

Uganda has issued a three-month ultimatum to Democratic Republic of Congo to relocate hundreds of ex-rebel fighters or they will be handed to the United Nations, an army spokesman said Thursday.

The deadline follows clashes between the defeated M23 rebels and the Ugandan armed forces last month, when attempts to repatriate the insurgents saw around 1,000 fighters escape their camp in western Uganda, fearing for their safety if they were sent back to DR Congo.

A huge haul of elephant ivory seized in Uganda probably includes tusks stolen from government strongrooms last year, wildlife officials said Tuesday.

In November, Ugandan authorities discovered that more than a tonne (2,204 pounds) of impounded ivory had vanished from state vaults.

Notorious former Lord's Resistance Army commander Dominic Ongwen made his first appearance before the International Criminal Court on Monday, accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The initial hearing for the Ugandan child soldier-turned-warlord came days after he was transferred to The Hague-based court following his surprise surrender to U.S. troops earlier this month.

Captured Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebel commander Dominic Ongwen has been handed over to the Central African Republic to be transferred to the International Criminal Court, the Ugandan army said on Saturday.

Ongwen surrendered last week, dealing a major blow to the LRA's three-decade-long campaign across several central African nations. He has been sought by the ICC for almost a decade to face charges including war crimes, murder, enslavement, inhumane acts and directing attacks against civilians.

A Ugandan police officer was charged Thursday for assaulting a journalist covering a protest march against high unemployment.

Joram Mwesigye, a superintendent in charge of a police division in the capital Kampala, was charged with assaulting local television journalist Andrew Lwanga, as well as damaging two cameras.

Captured Lord's Resistance Army rebel chief Dominic Ongwen was handed over Wednesday to African Union troops to be sent to trial at the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity, Uganda's army said.

Ongwen, who surrendered last week and was in the custody of U.S. special forces in the Central African Republic, has been sought by the ICC for almost a decade to face charges including war crimes, murder, enslavement, inhumane acts and directing attacks against civilians.

Captured Ugandan Lord's Resistance Army rebel chief Dominic Ongwen will be sent to the International Criminal Court to face charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity, Uganda's military said Tuesday.

Ongwen, who is in custody of U.S. special forces after surrendering in the Central African Republic last week, has been sought by the ICC for almost a decade to face charges including murder, enslavement, inhumane acts and directing attacks against civilians.

Tanzania will back a U.N. military offensive against Rwandan rebels in lawless eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, President Jakaya Kikwete has said, dismissing accusations he favored the insurgents as "preposterous."

United Nations peacekeepers are preparing a military offensive against the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) -- an ethnic Hutu group, some of whose members took part in atrocities in the 1994 Rwandan genocide before crossing into DR Congo -- after they ignored a January 2 deadline to surrender.

East African foreign ministers met in Mogadishu on Saturday to push peace efforts in war-torn Somalia, the first time the regional bloc has met in the country for almost three decades.

Dozens of heavily armed soldiers and police patrolled the streets, where Al-Qaeda-affiliated Shebab militants regularly carry out bombings and killings.