Key Issues
- Over 836 cattle cattle raided in the past two months in Lefori and Moyo Sub-county
- But the governor of Yei River state, Emmanuel Adil accused the Dinka Boro tribe in South Sudan for being responsible for the animal raids in Moyo
- The porous borders allow free entry and exit for the South Sudanese armed me who have always abducted Ugandans including MPs who were on a fact finding mission on the disputed land
By Metedio Iceta
Moyo-Security officials from Moyo district have yet failed to recover the animals that were recently raided by armed men from South Sudan.
The attempts to have the animals recovered earlier even failed with only a few returning on their own.
Even after the delegations from South Sudanese government led by the governor of Yei river state, Emmanuel Adil, Aggrey Tisa, the presidential advisor on Economic affairs, Mr David June, the Acting Speaker Yei Rive state and Ms Hudah Liole, the member of local government Yei river state and officials from Uganda Security team led by the 4th UPDF division Commander Brig Emmanuel Kanyesigye, their efforts have not yielded any fruit yet.
Williams Anyama, the Moyo district LC5 Chairman, said the armed men from South Sudan were taking advantage of the leniency of Uganda government in handling the matters at the border.
“When you (South Sudan) continue to push our people against the wall where will it leave us? People will have no option but put their efforts together and fight a common war against the government that is not friendly to the civilians because some of the tribes in South Sudan feel marginalized,” Anyama noted.
The UPDF 4th division commander, Brig Emmanuel Kanyesigye said it was agreed that the two governments should focus on cross border security meetings. “We should encourage cross border meeting and establish liaison, intelligence but also we should be able to recover the cattle that were raid recently in February and March, 2018,” Brig Kanyesigye said.
He added that: “The meeting had also tasked the South Sudan government to recover the cattle because the raid was done by its own people. We don’t know them but the South Sudan government know them and if they cannot recover the animals that were raided, then they can do it in other forms.”
He also has assured the South Sudanese officials in the meeting that should there be another raid of cattle in the district, the UPDF will be left with no option and will be forced to pursue the animals inside South Sudan.
Col Gabriel Paul Lam, the Deputy Military Spokesperson for SPLA-IO told Daily Monitor that it is shameful for the Yei Governor, Emmanuel Adil to accuse a particular community or tribe for the cattle raid in Moyo. “They (government) should take responsibility for the actions of regime’s forces who crossed into Uganda,” Col Lam said.
He said the SPLA IO is not against a joint security meeting between the UPDF and SPLA IG but we advise the Ugandan forces to avoid being lured into joint operations against our forces as this is the main aim of the regime.
