NORTHERN UGANDA: He says the government should intervene in the ongoing issue in Apaa that has gone unresolved for a decade now.
Olanya called on the government to deploy neutral security personnel and withdraw those he alleged to have taken side with the perpetrators.
Santa Okot, the Aruu North MP, wondered why the President has failed to stop the bloodshed in Apaa, arguing that the laxity in ending the conflict could be deliberate.
However, Chua West Member of Parliament Philip Okin Ojara believes the ongoing conflict in Apaa can be put to an end if the government degazettes the contested land into a human settlement.
However, Peter Taban Data, the Adjumani Resident District Commissioner, says the attacks happened inside the protected Zoka Forest, where no human settlement is allowed.
He notes that a team of police detectives and army personnel dispatched to the crime scene were still investigating the attacks and the people who could have waged the raids.
My people are still in the middle of the bush there; the place is in the middle of Zoka Forest. For the last four days, the team has been on the ground assessing the situation, and we expect them to be out today (Thursday) with detailed reports, “says Taban.
Taban confirmed that seven people, among them a Madi woman currently receiving treatment at Mungula Health Center IV and six Acholi men admitted at St. Mary’s Hospital Lacor in Gulu City, sustained injuries during the raid. He adds that a total of 58 huts belonging to both Madi and Acholi locals were razed down.
Efforts to get comments from the fourth infantry division commander, Brig. Bonny Bamwiseki, were futile by press time as he was engaged in a meeting.
Since the fresh attacks, security personnel comprising army and police officers have been deployed in the contested area.
Home to some 26,000 people according to an unofficial door-to-door census and measuring approximately 827 sq. miles, Apaa township has been at the center of a dispute for nearly ten years now.
Conflict over the fertile strip of land started in 2012 when Uganda Wildlife Authority-UWA rangers forcefully evicted locals, citing it’s a protected East Madi Wildlife Game Reserve.
It further escalated in October 2017 after the then Local Government Minister, Tom Butime, annexed the land from Pabbo Sub-county in Amuru District and officially handed it to Adjumani District Local Government.
