Sudanese warriors selling weapons to Ugandans

March 26, 2007 (KIGALI) — Warriors from South Sudan have raided Uganda and are selling off some of
their superior weapons to the residents, an area Member of Parliament has revealed. Rev. Simon Lakodo said.

Accordinf to the Rwandan, the New Times, the Topotho, who have moved from south eastern Sudan escaping from severe drought and a recent clash with Kenya’s Turkana are selling RPGs, G2, G3 and hand grenades to residents in the north eastern Uganda.

The cattle raiders arrived last week and are presently camped at Kidepo National Park but are moving south of the country, the legislator told his colleagues on the Defence and Internal Affairs parliamentary committee on Thursday 22.

And the Defence Minister, Crispus Kiyonga, who appeared before the same committee corroborated that an average gun goes for shs750, 000 (about US$400).

The Topotho number over 5,000 moving with over 10,000 heads of cattle, according to Lakodo.

The development is expected to raise crime in the region considering that Kampala’s efforts to disarm the Karamojong warriors would be frustrated with acquisition of sophisticated weapons. The Karamojong, who roam from eastern Uganda to western Kenya raiding cattle communities, usually carry AK47s smuggled all the way from the war-torn Somalia.

Lakodo also named Kenya’s marauding Turkana as the other group that has
boosted the arms market in Uganda, who have taken a laxity environment in
their country to cross to Uganda to barter trade their guns for cattle. The
MP said they exchange a gun for four to five heads of cattle.

Kiyonga estimated that his government has to date recovered 5,600 from the
Karamojong.

Army authorities in Uganda estimate that 17,000 more illegal guns are still
in the hands of the Karamojong warriors.

However, Kiyonga disputed the figure saying that the army statistics have
not catered for the arms that have just been acquired.

Kiyonga, who held an emergency security meeting attended by both politicians
and senior army officers last week in Karamoja, warned that the disarmament
process would be complicated by the presence of foreign armed groups.

The meeting also reportedly identified about five routes used by the foreign
warriors to infiltrate Uganda.

In the past, Uganda has banked on Kenya and the Government of South Sudan to
frustrate the warriors.

But Kiyonga told the parliamentary committee that collaboration with the
Kenyan and South Sudanese governments to counter the armed warriors had been
weakened by the two neighbours’ reluctance since Nairobi was in a campaign
period for the forthcoming general elections and the Sudan People’s
Liberation Army/Movement was concentrating on developing its more demanding
priorities after about four decades of civil war.

Kiyonga also accused members of the Uganda People’s Defence Forces and
auxiliary forces for illegally sell arms to the warriors exacerbating the
market.

The Ugandan army, police and local defence personnel have recently deployed
in eastern Uganda to disarm the heavily armed cattle raiders. However,
because of insufficient logistics, the disarmament has left a lot to desire.
The MPs on the Defence and Internal Affairs parliamentary committee informed
their colleagues that the members of the Ugandan forces trail the warriors
on foot complicating their mission.

But Kiyonga said Cabinet had resolved to borrow US$4m to purchase military
vehicles for the soldiers.

(New Times)