South Sudanese enter Uganda with bullets

South Sudanese refugees at Dzaipi reception centre in Adjumani District yesterday. PHOTOS BY MARTIN OKUDI. 

By FELIX WAROM OKELLO

In Summary

Security personnel and immigration officials dealing with the refugees say the discovery poses a security threat if the displaced persons are not properly screened.

West Nile

South Sudanese fleeing war in their country into Uganda have been found with hundreds of bullets and army uniforms.

The security personnel at the border, officials from the Office of the Prime Minister and UN refugee agency, UNHCR, which are coordinating the refugee settlement, said this posed a security threat to other refugees and locals, if the armed refugees are not properly screened and disarmed.

At Dzaipi Reception Centre in Adjumani District where about 1,500 refugees were registered, 208 bullets were recovered from women. The women, whose names could not be revealed for security reasons, say some were abandoned by their husbands who have since joined the battlefield. A total of 58 army uniforms had been recovered at the centre by yesterday.

In Koboko, a pair of army uniform of a captain and a pair of ceremonial uniform were discovered. A pair of trousers of the Republican Guard of South Sudan was also recovered from a woman, who claimed she found them on the way.

Speaking to the Daily Monitor yesterday, the police spokesperson for West Nile region, Ms Josephine Angucia, said: “We managed to recover the ammunition and army uniforms from them through the checking process before registration to have them settled here”



She added: “Ideally, it is a big security threat if there is laxity in checking them.”
Ms Angucia said the refugees, who were found with the assorted ammunition, claim they were abandoned by soldiers fighting in South Sudan.

Displaced numbers grow
The government forces are fighting rebels led by former vice president Riek Machar.
The UN estimates that the war, which erupted on December 15, has killed more than 1,000 people and displaced more than 200,000.

In Arua District, some of those fleeing the fighting have started looking for houses to rent.
One of them, Mr Riek Kuol, said he has five family members and could not manage camp life. “Thank God I am alive. But we need to be in a decent house than staying in camps where water, food, shelter will be difficult to get. But if the war subsides, I can plan to go back because other relatives have remained there,” he said.