By William Madouk
A Member of Parliament representing Ikotos County, Eastern Equatoria, in the National Parliament has raised concerns about continuous cross-border attacks and encroachments by the Uganda People’s Defense Forces (UPDF).
Legislator Tobiolo Alberio Oromo stated that the Ugandan army recently attacked Mosingo village and raided two kraals. Fortunately, they were confronted by the Monyomiji, a group of youth from Torit, who managed to recover most of the cattle taken during the raid.
“Rt. Speaker my information is on 17 [November] the Uganda People Defense Forces came and attacked Mosingo village in Isherta Boma, Ikotos Central Payam and raided about two kraals,” he stated.
“They [UPDF] went with these two kraals and the Monyomiji battle them – and they are able to recover majority of cattle meanwhile UPDF left with 14 heads of cattle, they are still under their custody until today,” he added.
Oromo noted when the Ikotos County commissioner went to ask for return of remaining cattle, he was told the cattle in question were going to be sold out to treat UPDF wounded soldiers in their fierce confrontation with Monyomiji.
“Rt speaker it is now becoming too much, if UPDF is misusing their powers to encroach into our territory with heavy weapons to intimidate our people, our civilians in our farming areas, then this is very serious,” he lamented.
MP Oromo cited that the government should carry out delimitation of borders to bring encroachment to an end, or else “we together with our communities shall continue to protect our territories.”
“From Muropai to Longara’jore that is Mosingo, Uganda were creating roads in the name of giving South Sudan 5 kilometres bonus and now they are intensifying the petrol in those areas, that these are their territory,” he alleged.
He proposed a summons of the minister of foreign affairs to instruct their envoy to stop this illegal border invasion.
“Rt speaker I want to bring this the attention of the committee concern to immediately summon the minister concern, who is the minister of foreign affairs to inform the ambassador of Uganda to stop UPDF not to patrol that area anymore,” he said.
“From today onward, they should stop patrolling those areas otherwise we will have our Christmas there,”
In response, the first deputy speaker, Oyet Nathaniel Pierieno advised the lawmaker to put his information in writing and table it before the August House for deliberation.
“Regarding the border encroachment this has become a persistent matter, I call recall that we had summoned the minister of foreign affairs several times over this matter and we are not getting to the depth of the issue,” said Oyet.
However, he said incidences are still recorded in Kaji-Keji, Morobo in Central Equatoria state, Kapoeta, Magwi and Ikotos of Eastern Equatoria state, adding that the mover should submit a ‘substantive motion’.
“Hon. Alberio you sit down to develop a substantive motion over this matter so that the parliament will deliberate and decide on a way forward, it should not be business as usual because we have tolerated this for quite a long time.
“We have been engaging with the executive for quite a long time, we now want a decisive action for the House for us to move forward with a matter,” he added.