GeneralGovernancePolitics
Trending

Government Recovers More Than 50 Guns From Karamojong Warriors

Brig.Joseph Balikudembe, the 3rd Division Commander sentising some of the Karamojong communities recently. PHOTO BY TIMOTHY EODU.

Government has so far recovered 70 guns in Karamoja disarmament operation. The joint forces of UPDF, Police and Prisons currently operating in Karamoja have so far recovered 70 guns and 534 rounds of ammunition from the Karimojong warriors since the 17th of July when they launched the second phase of disarmament in the sub-region.

Capt. Edrin Mawanda, the UPDF 3rd division Spokesperson said the operation to recover illegal guns in the region has intensified, adding that the warriors are now facing much pressure to voluntarily hand over the guns.

“There is a lot of pressure right now and the armed cattle rustlers are seeing no space for them to hide guns so many of them are coming out voluntarily to hand over their guns to the forces,” he said.

According to Capt. Mawanda, even those who had opted to hide in the wilderness with the guns are voluntarily coming out because the forces are reaching all their hiding places.

He noted that yesterday on Sunday, the force arrested one Boda Boda rider in Lodiko sub-county carrying an AK 47 sub machinegun with an empty magazine.

Cattle rustling in Karamoja has recently intensified.

President Yoweri Museveni meeting the district leaders and members of parliament for the Karamoja region to discuss a way forward on the insecurity threat. COURTESY PHOTO.

President Museveni has been in Karamoja since Friday, meeting the district leaders and members of parliament for the Karamoja region to discuss a way forward on the insecurity threat.

The president left Karamoja on Sunday after meeting the security commanders.

Joel Ngorok a resident of Moroto Municipality proposed that the government needs to do both physical disarmament and psychological disarmament.

He said this would help to polish the mindset of the Karimojong.

“Collecting the guns from Karimojong and leaving them without disarming their mindset is a waste of time because the same people who hand over guns will continue rearming themselves,” said Ngorok.

Joshua Lomokol, another resident said the Karamoja situation calls for enough force to counter any plan rustlers make to raid.

“What I am seeing is the raids moving from generation to generation, which is very dangerous,” he said.

Simon Alinga another resident said the Karamoja cattle conflict can only be addressed when the government introduces compulsory education for all Karimojong children.

He noted that compulsory education will keep Karimojong children away from getting intoxicated with animal raids, and they should have no school holidays.

Show More

Noah Omuya

Noah Omuya is the founder and CEO of Aica Media and a two time winner of the Media Challenge Awards (The best feature story writer- 2018 and the best Climate Change Photography Award- 2019). He has a bachelors degree in Mass Communication from Kampala International University. He is also an alumni for; British Council Future News Worldwide Fellowship- 2020, Climate Tracker Energy Reporting Fellowship- 2020, InfoNile- Code for Africa Data Journalism Fellowship- 2020, the Media Challenge Fellowship, 2019 and British Council East Africa and Africa Writers Trust Master Class in Creative Writing- 2019. Omuya has specialized training in writing, strategic and multimedia communication, mainstream and online journalism, broadcast media and youth participatory radio, content development, and public relations. He is very much interested in sustainable development communication.

Related Articles

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Back to top button

Adblock Detected

Please consider supporting us by disabling your ad blocker