The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
Kikuube, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Security officials in the Albertine region have released and deported 35 Congolese fishermen who were arrested on the Lake Albert waters in Kikuube district.
The Congolese fishermen were arrested on August 1, 2022 while carrying out fishing activities in the Ugandan waters near Sebigoro landing site.
They were immediately whisked to Sebigoro landing site police post where they were detained on charges of illegal entry into Ugandan and using illegal fishing gear specifically fishing nets and boats.
Police say the fishermen allegedly crossed into the Ugandan waters with nine illegal boats and fishing nets that were also impounded and destroyed by the Uganda Peoples Defense Forces-UPDF Fisheries Protection Unit-FPU.
Major Richard Mafabi, the sector commander who is overseeing the FPU operations on Lake Albert told Uganda Radio Network-URN in a telephone interview on Thursday morning that the Fisheries Protection Unit-FPU personnel while conducting normal operations spotted the Congolese fishermen carrying out fishing activities near Sebigoro landing site and swung in action and arrested them.
He says they later liaised with their Congolese counterparts and deported the fishermen. The fishermen were from the landing sites of Kasenyi and Tchomia in the Ituri province in Eastern DRC.
Amlan Tumusiime, the Kikuube Resident District Commissioner-RDC says currently, security is heightened along the Uganda-DRC border to ensure that no Congolese fishermen crosses into the country to conduct fishing.
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