SOROTI– The people living along the border between Katakwi and Kapelebyong districts in eastern Uganda and Karamoja sub-region are in urgent need of improved security to protect them from attacks by the suspected Karamojong warriors, the Bishop of Soroti Catholic Diocese Rt. Joseph Eciru Oliac has warned.
This follows resurgence of cattle raids by the Karamojong cattle rustlers which has seen more than 1000 herds of cattle stolen, people killed and hundreds forced into camps.
The most severely affected areas are the sub-counties of Magoro, Ngariam, Usuk in Katakwi district and Kapelebyong, Obalanga and Acowa in Kapelebyong district, which border on the Karamoja sub-region.
In his visit, to Amokori camp in Kapelebyong sub-county and Okunguru camp in Okunguru sub-county, Kapelebyong district, Bishop Eciru said the government should take action to end renewed cattle raids in Karamoja which has stretched to the districts of Katakwi and Kapelebyong.
Bishop Eciru was accompanied by a team of Teso Religious Leaders under their umbrella of TERELEPAR, an inter-religious organization formed by the Religious Leaders from all denominations in Teso sub-region to address issues of Peace, Reconciliation and Development.
They delivered relief food to the affected the Internally Displaced Persons [IDP] of Amokori camp in Kapelebyong sub-county at the border between Kapelebyong district and Okunguru camp and also at the border between Abim district in Karamoja sub-region and Kapelebyong in Teso sub-region.
According to him, the government needs to ensure the safety of the population of Katakwi and Kapelebyong districts and the [northeastern] region as a whole.
“The overall need for efficient security in the district cannot be emphasised enough,” the Bishop Eciru added.
According to district statistics, there are currently 8000 Internally Displaced Persons in Omokori and Okunguru camps in Kapelebyong districts.
Bishop Eciru said, since the start of the year, the Karamojong have carried out several attacks in these Katakwi and Kapelebyong districts and the threat of further raids is ever-present.
He asserted that in his interaction with displaced people in the camps, he learnt that many of them are suffering unusually high rates of malaria, diarrhea, intestinal worms, upper respiratory tract infections and pneumonia.
“Many of the camps are isolated and Internally Displaced Persons [IDPs] have to travel an average of 15 km on foot to reach a health centre,” he said.
The Bishop who reached the gospel of hope to the IPDs described the sanitation situation within the camps as “a time bomb just waiting to explode”.
The poor attention that these IDPs have received from the government and international aid agencies. “With them receiving no intervention from government and NGOs, and with the displaced having little or no property, and limited access to their gardens, they have lost a source of income and become progressively impoverished and destitute,” Bishop Eciru said.
However, he [Bishop Eciru] asked the people to desist from the act of revenge, agitating that the problem does not only require the guns but multifaceted approach from stakeholders who love peace.
The ordeal of Internally Displaced Persons [IDPs].
In Kapelebyong, just like in any other conflict, the most affected are women, children and old people. When the warriors invade a place, they don’t only steal animals, they kill people and also loot other properties.
Stella Ruth Akiteng, the councilor of Airabet parish who doubles as the vice chairperson Okungur sub county said, the area is the hot spot of suspected Karamojong raids.
“We don’t live or sleep in our homes, they follow us even in camps as well here in Okungur and Obulin. On the 18th April, 2022 they attacked us here” she said.
Akiteng said that the situation in the camp has left already youngest girls now going for early child marriage since they are in mixed groups with other children.
“Most family heads don’t stay at home with children. They try to move up and down looking for food and children are left alone. With this many are now living also as husbands and wives here in Okungur” she claimed.
She said that solving domestic issues for them as leaders is also challenging in the current setting since most husbands or men are not living together with their wives or families.
“Women are also missing their husband, it’s becoming hard to resolve family issues for us as leaders, and we also have two women who were raped but they cannot openly speak due to fear of stigmatization” she revealed.
Charles Eidu is a 14-year-old primary five pupils at Okungur Community School, the only school in the Sub County.
He said that many of them did not study the previous term due to the insecurity brought about by the suspected Karamojong cattle rustlers that has since January claimed the lives of five people in Okungur sub-county.
“Since the beginning of this insecurity, we are not in school due to fear because you cannot remain at school and die, even the teachers took off, our parents also failed to pay school fees and those who could afford contemplated paying with fear that they may pay and the conflict continues” he said.
Lucy Amayo Women Chairperson Okungur sub county said, as women they have been surviving on agriculture, which would enable them earn a living and meet their needs.
However, the invasion of suspected Karimojong warriors have greatly affected their only livelihood with many fleeing home to live in camps.
“In conflicts like these you realize the most affected are us women and children. We don’t have peace in homes, the little food crops we left in the villages, the warriors come and destroyed, even the birds they kill. It’s hard to make a living and many husbands now look for where to hangout, living children crying of hunger with women” she narrated.
Another lady narrates, “Now days, parents share the same room with their children at night. Since we can’t risk moving out to use the latrine, we urinate before or children and suffocate with its smell.”
From Omokori parish Kapelebyong sub county, a land that borders Napak, Elizabeth Asege, in her late 50s claimed that unlike in other areas, for them they are being attacked by suspected Karimojong warriors who are backed by their leaders with intention that the Iteso in Amokori are occupying their land.
“This conflict is being escalated by leaders in Karamoja who want us to leave this land and move backward claiming that we are in their land. They claim that Amokori here is under their land, they want us to go away from here up to Amasiniko where they claim the boundary is theirs” she narrated.
She asked for the intervention of leaders and security to rescue them.
“We are not sure of our fate tomorrow; they may come and destroy our huts here” she alleges.
However, Emmanuel Ojirot, the deputy Resident District Commissioner [RDC] Kapelebyong District reiterated the government’s commitment to address the worrying insecurity caused by the Karamojong cattle rustlers.
He said in order to quell the situation, six military detachments have so far been established in hot spot areas.
The areas where the military detachments have been established are Okok, Arengareng, Kobulin 1, Omokori, Akulonyo and Alarilari with each reportedly having between 35-50 soldiers.
Ojirot, believes that with increased army deployment in the hot spot areas, the increased wave of cattle raids by the suspected Karamojong warriors will be reduced.
The Deputy RDC therefore called for calm among the locals and urged them to ensure that they report cases of cattle raids by the Karamojong warriors to the security as soon as they happen for easy tracing.
https://thecooperator.news/population-growth-threatening-sustainable-land-use-in-teso-sub-region/
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