Cissy Makumby
6 August 2008
Security agencies in the northern region have intensified the search for weapons abandoned during the 21-year insurgency that left over 1.7 million people displaced.
Fourth Division Spokesperson Capt Ronald Kakurungu told Daily Monitor on Monday that since the beginning of the year, the army in collaboration with police and humanitarian agencies are clearing the areas of deadly weapons so that former IDPs can return home without any fear.
"We have been able to recover 175 sub machine guns, 6 rocket propelled grenades, 5 mortars, 3 Pistols, 67 grenades, 75 landmines, 3 machine guns, 159 bombs of mortar and airdrop types, 10,228 live ammunition of sub and machine guns," he said.
The weapons were recovered from Acholi, Lango and West Nile sub-regions that were hit hard by the Joseph Kony's LRA rebel activities. He said the ammunition was got from the LRA fields that they abandoned while some from arms traffickers most especially in West Nile who usually cross the Uganda-DR-Congo border.
"We have observed that the fields abandoned by the LRA, are fertile grounds for the civilians to get guns and instead of handing them to authorities, they begin selling them and this is very common in West Nile," Capt. Kakurungu said.
"With the peace we have in the northern region now, if the issue of ammunition is not handled with security agencies, it might cause insecurity. " he said. He the retuning population is being sensitised on the risks of land mines weapon as they resettle.
"The return process is going on well. But access roads, health centres and schools are still a problem in some areas," he said. He urged the community to report to security and district leaders people who may be armed. " We need to co-operate and work together to bring about peace," he said.
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