Army Disbands Check Point in Apaa

Brigadier Bonny Bamwiseki, the Gulu 4th Division Commander has disbanded all roadblocks along roads in the contested Apaa Township and East Madi Wildlife Reserve following the death of a truck driver.

There are two security checkpoints between Labala Parish which is the main entry to Apaa Township from Amuru district through Pabbo Sub County and one is located at Itirikwa Sub County which is also the main entry into Apaa Township from Adjumani district.

The security checkpoints are manned jointly by the UPDF, UPF and UWA rangers who have equally established detaches in their respective locations.

UWA claims that Apaa is in East Madi Wildlife Reserve while the National Forestry Authority (NFA) on the other hand have decried extensive cutting down of indigenous trees from the Zoka forest also nearing the area by unsuspecting people for commercial purposes. 

On Friday, armed personnel of the Uganda Wildlife Authority and the Uganda People's Defense Forces (UPDF) as well Uganda Police Force allegedly shot dead Denis Labista Opiyo a driver of Canter vehicle registration number UAU 932G and injured two female passengers. 

In a security meeting held in Apaa trading center, following the shooting of a truck driver by UWA rangers in the area, Bamwiseki said there was no need for a checkpoint and security detach. He says the checkpoint was instead breeding insecurity and affecting the peaceful co-existence of the locals in the area.

//cue in: "They must remove

Cue out: ...any other society"//.

The meeting also resolved to halt the operation by the Uganda Wildlife Authority- UWA, who is accused of causing mayhem to over 38,000 residents of the area.   

Bamwiseki says any operation to be conducted by the rangers should be approved from its head offices in Kampala. 

//Cue in: "I don’t want

Cue out:...living in harmony"//.  

Mariam Abwola, the LCI Chairperson of Apaa hopes that the security personnel heeds to the directives such that calm and peace can return to the area. 

 

According to Abwola, they have lost several of their household properties and animals among others to the operations by the security personnel deployed in the area.  

Michael Lakony, the LCV Chairperson Amuru welcomes the move by the army but insists the perpetrators of last week`s incidents should be arrested.

According to Lakony, the government has on several occasions promised to end the conflict in the area and yet it’s the government agencies which are committing crimes against the residents of the area.

//Cue in: "If that one

Cue out:...punish the community"//.

Before the shooting of Denis Labista Opio, a resident of Lacor center in Gulu a few meters from the security checkpoint in Apaa for allegedly carrying unspecified sacks of charcoal from Apaa market to Gulu City, barely two months ago, a Boda Boda cyclist was also shot dead at the checkpoint by security under unclear circumstances. 

 

Apaa Township is at the heart of a 17-year-long protracted territorial dispute between Amuru and Adjumani districts with each claiming swathes of land measuring 827 Square Kilometres.

The area has been gazetted and degazetted multiple times into a conservation area.

The dispute was triggered in 2002 when Adjumani district local government asked Parliament of Uganda to elevate the status of the area from a former controlled hunting area to a Wildlife Reserve.