The clashes escalated when a group of refugee youth's attacked and assaulted a resident from the host community who was grazing in the area promoting revenge attacks that left seven South Sudanese refugees dead with the eighth dying at Arua hospital.
The two antagonists then kneel down opposite each other with their arms folded at their backs and they bend without touching the ground to drink a bitter solution made from Oput tree in a calabash. The drinking of the bitter herb, mixed with a lamb's blood, means that the two conflicting parties accept "the bitterness of the past and promise never to taste such bitterness again."
Trouble started after the supporters of Ayub Kisubi and his rival, Zabura Mugara started accusing each other of ferrying nonvoters from other districts to illegally participate in the primaries.
Aaron Naturinda, the Masaka District Criminal Investigations Officer, says they have kicked off investigations as they hunt for Nuwashaba to explain what could have happened.
Police spokesperson Fred Enanga said that Emmanuel Kabanda tried to end his life by setting himself ablaze on Sunday around 8:30 pm shortly after his motorcycle Reg. Number UDU619H was impounded.
The deceased have been identified as Joshua Okello 5 years old and the sister Tracy Among 2 years old. It is alleged that the mother of the deceased, identified as Rebecca Ajuru, was away to collect drinking water.
A five-member delegation of security personnel from South Sudan’s Torit state accompanied by political and cultural leaders handed the animals to Lamwo district leaders at Apiriti border point in Madi-Opei sub-county on Sunday.
Lira District Police Commander Bernard Mugerwa dismisses the allegations as baseless, only that "...there was some confusion resulting from acts of hooliganism by the groups of people who had converged at the tally centre, we had to apply reasonable force to calm the situation, not necessarily extortion and torture as such ’’ he said.
