Mityana Municipality Member of Parliament Francis Zaake has threatened to camp in Karamoja if government fails to come up with a quick and reliable solution to solve the current insecurity in the Sub-Region.
Zaake said government is quick to deploy every type of security machinery in the town to threaten the opposition yet in Karamoja sub-region where the presence of security deployment is needed has been ignored.
“Next Tuesday I’m to camp in Karamoja subregion in case gov’t doesn’t come up with a report to curb ongoing instability. Deployment is usually heightened on the sight of an opposition actor and in that regard as the NUP youth wing head, I’m to extend our Youths Kunga drive,” reads the tweet.
It’s not only Zaake who has expressed his concern about the insecurity taking place in the Karamoja sub-region, on Tuesday the president of Forum for Democratic Change(FDC) Patrick Oboi Amuriat called upon the government to conduct an inquiry over the situation in the sub region. He noted that some elements within the military are accomplices in the criminal raids taking place in Karamoja.
“Some elements within UPDF are actually involved. We want to challenge the establishment to come out very clearly on who is doing what and fueling the already bad situation in the region. We also demand that a thorough investigation should be conducted on the killings of civilians by the military,” Amuriat said.
The Karamoja resurgences of cattle rustling resumed last year after 10 years of relative peace in the region which forced the Uganda Peoples’ Defence Forces (UPDF) to deploy its soldiers to curb the instabilities.
However, since last year, the instability has continued where hundreds of homes have been destroyed by the Karimojong warriors trying to rustle cattle and, in the move, to prevent and stop the instability, hundreds of suspected cattle rustlers have been killed by a joint force of police and the army, security forces, with most deaths attributed to forceful disarmament operations.
Most suspected Karimojong warriors were killed following the relaunch of disarmament operations in the northeastern sub-region on July 17, 2021.
According to the 3rd division commander Brig Gen Joseph Balikudembe, many illegal guns are still in hands of the Karamojong (an estimate of about 500 illegal guns are still being kept by the suspected rustlers) which has facilitated the continuity of the instability.
Also according to sources from the ground, the leaders in the region still play a bigger part in protecting the cattle rustlers because whenever the security forces carry out operations in an area, some leaders of that particular area make frantic phone calls defending the criminals which has made the operation very difficult.
Cattle raids continue to happen in the districts within and neighbouring Karamoja especially in Kapelebyong, Katakawi, Kumi, Bukedea, Abim and Agogo where scores of lives have been lost and massive displacement of people continues on a daily basis.
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