Updated

Activists are urging Uganda's government to reverse a decision to open for oil drilling a wildlife park on Uganda's border with Congo.

Uganda's government is expected to announce next month which companies can bid for new oil blocks, including one in the Lake Edward basin inside Uganda's Queen Elizabeth National Park.

George Boden of the transparency group Global Witness said Thursday that drilling for oil on the Ugandan side of Lake Edward makes it "far more likely that there will be greater pressure to open up areas on the other side of the lake."

Congo's Virunga National Park, which encompasses part of Lake Edward, has been the subject of a major campaign to protect it from oil drilling.