By Jurugo Emmanuel Ogasto
The Joint security team in Maracha district of Uganda’s West Nile region have retrieved two guns in separate incidences in a single day from Nyara cell Okapi ward Maracha town council after being tipped by whistle-blowers.
The guns that are suspected to have been smuggled in from the neighbouring South Sudan and Democratic Republic of Congo are alleged to have been used in the robberies that were documented by police in the recent past three weeks in West Nile region.
Regional police said over the weekend at around 7:50am the first gun of SAR type with registration number TK2854 with 4 rounds of ammunitions was picked meanwhile on the same date at around 9:00PM the second gun which is identified to be AK47 with registration number 56-16219008 with 5 rounds of Ammunitions was also recovered in the same cell.
Josephine Angucia, West Nile regional police spokesperson told No.1 Citizen Newspaper that no culprit was arrested at the moment and investigations are going on.
“Right now, we have two deadly weapons which have been removed out of the hands of the communities, it was the informers who tipped police of the guns in the cell,” she said. Adding “When these guns remained in circulation in the communities especially in the hands of the wrong people, they can be used to terrorize the communities through robberies, murders and so on and we continue appealing to them to share information with security forces.”
On 24th February 2023, an armed robbery of a shop in Oleba trading center left two people to sustain gunshot wounds who were rushed to a nearby health facility. Meanwhile Early March 2023, a fearful armed robbery of a business man in Arua city left one of the proprietors of the business wounded with gun bullets and 50million sums of money looted without arrest made.
Stephen Obitre the LC5 Chairperson Maracha district termed the incidents unfortunate revealing that they are in liaison with the security to fight the vice.
“Just recently somebody was shot there in Nyarakua area there in Oleba, it could be one of the guns used in that act, it is just very unfortunate and very surprising because it is the first of its kind, we are getting guns in our territory, you know these guys of ours have stayed in Sudan for a long time and could have sneaked into Uganda with the guns through porous borders,” he lamented.
“So, we are really going to join the security team to move out to mobilize people against that,” Obitre added
Meanwhile authorities believe that, with the estimated over 122 illegal entries from the neighbouring South Sudan and DR Congo into West Nile, such could be some of the sneaked guns from their neighbours who are experiencing political instabilities and calls on alertness among the communities in the bordering districts.