By Frederick Dramadri

Maracha

The Joint security team in Maracha district have retrieved two guns in separate incidences in a single day from Nyara cell Okapi ward Maracha town council after been tipped by whistleblowers.
The guns that are suspected to be from the neighboring countries of south Sudan and Democratic Republic of Congo are alleged to have been used in the robberies that were documented by police in the recent three weeks in west Nile region.
According to police on 14^th March 2023 at Around 7:50 Am in the morning the first gun of SAR type with registration number TK2854 with 4 rounds of ammunitions was picked meanwhile on the same date at around 9:00PM the second gun which is identified to be AK47 with registration number 56-16219008 with 5 rounds of Ammunitions was recovered in the same cell.

SP Josephine Angucia West Nile police spokesperson says no culprit was arrested at the moment and investigations are on. “Right now we have two deadly weapons which have been removed out of the hands of the communities, it was the informers who tipped police of the guns in the cell. When these guns remain in circulation in the communities especially in the hands of the wrong people, they can be used to terrorize the communities through robberies, through murders and so on and we continue appealing to them to share information with security forces”
On 24^th February 2023 an armed robbery of a shop in Oleba trading center left 2 people who sustained gunshot wounds were rushed to a nearby health facility, Meanwhile Early March 2023, a fearful armed robbery of a business man in Arua city left one of the proprietor of the business wounded with gun bullets and 50million sums of money looted with no arrest made.

Stephen Obitre the LC5 Chairperson Maracha district terms the incidence unfortunate revealing that they are in liaison with the security to fight the vice. “Just recently somebody was shot there in Nyarakua area there in Oleba, it could be one of the guns used in that act, it is just very unfortunate and very surprising because it is the first of its kind we are getting guns in our territory, you know these guys of ours have stayed in Sudan for a long time and could have sneaked into Uganda with the guns through porous borders. So we are really going to join the security team to move out to mobilize people against that,” Obitre exclaimed.
Authorities believe that, with the estimated over 122 illegal entries from the neighboring south Sudan and DR Congo into West Nile, such could be some of the sneaked guns from their neighbors who are experiencing political instabilities and call on alertness among the communities in the bordering districts.