The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The accumulated total of Karamojong cattle rustlers killed by joint security forces deployed to end lawlessness in Karamoja now stands at 413.
Micheal Longole, the Karamoja regional police spokesperson said the rustlers were put out of action from the 17th of July 2021 to July 2022, when the joint forces launched the disarmament exercise in the region.
He said the rustlers were put out of action through fire exchange between them and security forces across the region.
Longole told URN that within the same period, the forces managed to recover 557 guns and 3,167 rounds of ammunition.
He explain that 10,074 rustlers were arrested and 1,970 were remanded while 370 have since been sentenced.
“Within that period, our forces managed to recover 23,034 animals from rustlers and we are continuing with the operations,” he said.
But Joseph Losukari, a village peace activist in Mogoth village in Rupa sub-county, said the number of the killed rustlers could be more than what the forces have counted.
“We have lost our children who don’t want to listen to our elders’ advice not to continue with raids, to me the number that the forces are accounting is less,” he said.
Losukari projected that if it was a proper counting of the killed rustlers in Karamoja, the number can reach 2,000.
Mariko Loputhyang, another resident said the Karamoja region no longer has a big population of youth adding that the youth that the region would rely on have died in cattle rustling activities.
“We don’t have a big population of youth to take Karamoja to another level, the majority of the youths have been killed in the bush,” he lamented.
*****
URN
