Disputed Apaa land: Joint security meeting called to resolve ethnic clashes
AMURU– Leaders of Amuru and Adjumani districts are to hold a joint security meeting to resolve the ethnic tensions arising from the disputed Apaa land claimed by both the Acholi and Madi communities.
The tensions which started last Friday in the morning have entered the fifth day with more than 150 households from the three villages of Joka, Goro B and Goro A displaced to Apaa trading centre.
Some attackers who numbered about 100 men allegedly from aAdjumani and armed with arrows, bows, and machetes invaded the areas causing havoc to the community.
The group has reportedly destroyed several homesteads, not sparing crops and property of the affected communities that fled the attack.
When contacted, the Aswa Regional Police Public Relations Officer David Ongom Mudong, confirmed the incident but only said the issue of Apaa land conflict was being handled at the strategic level.
“The conflict in Apaa involves two folds, part of it is in Adjumani and Amuru and I am very limited to give comment,” Ongom told the Cooperator in an interview on Monday.
Meanwhile, a joint regional security meeting is summoned by the Amuru District Commissioner this Thursday to resolve the conflict.
The Amuru District Resident Commissioner LtCol. Pius Alitema noted that the stakeholders’ meeting intends to devise means of deescalating the eminent conflict and restore peace and security in the area.
The Amuru District Chairman Michael Lakony noted that conflict has impacted badly in production, health and education as a number of schools have been abandoned as tension resumed.
His counterpart of Adjumani Ben Anyama has blamed politicians for peddling the conflict to take advantage of the vulnerable communities for their own selfish interests as the land dispute continues.
“The disputed land is in Apaa but the two communities have lived on for many years without conflict but some people aren’t happy to see these two communities live in unity” Anyama allegedly explained.
He is however hopeful that the meeting will address the long-standing problem in the area to foster unity and coexistence among the two communities.
The Apaa conflict which sparked off in 2015 intensified in 2017 when the Ministry of Local Government declared the area as part of Adjumani district.
However, before his demise, President Museveni had instituted a Select Committee chaired by the Late Speaker of Parliament Jacob Lukori Oulanyah to resolve the conflict. Recently the region’s leaders asked Chief Justice Owiny Dollo to chair the committee.
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