About 300 armed South Sudan soldiers on Saturday crossed into Madi Opei Sub County in Lamwo district and demanded a stop in the construction of the Acholi- Bur Missingo road on grounds that it had entered South Sudanese territory by 7 kms.
Aswa region police spokesperson Jimmy Okema told a media briefing in Gulu on Monday that the soldiers were led by the Commissioner for Ikwotos County in Eastern Equatorial state, Mr Peter Lokeng. They accused the road contractor and the Ugandan government for intruding into South Sudan territory.
The 86.4 kilometer Acholi-Bur Missingo road is being constructed by the Chinese company, Chongqing international construction corporation (CICO).
The Acholibur-Missingo road works which is to be a major highway into South Sudan is part of the Olwiyo-Gulu road construction which was commissioned by president Museveni in February. Construction of the road will cost shs 523 billion.
The South Sudan incursion into Ugandan territory led to a deployment of the Uganda Police personnel, Uganda People’s Defence Forces and the intervention of Lamwo district leaders who calmed the otherwise tense situation over the border dispute.
Police spokesman Okema said calm has since returned to the area.
“The numbers of the SPLA soldiers who intervened where too many. But we appreciate that following diplomatic negotiations, everything ended peacefully without chaos,” Mr Okema said.
Lamwo Resident District Commissioner, Mr Jonathan Rutabingwa, who also doubles as the district security chairperson in a telephone interview said there was no cause for alarm since the matter has been resolved.
He said they managed to convince the south Sudanese authorities on the likely benefits of the road which once completed will benefit both Uganda and South Sudan.
However the Speaker of Eastern Equatorial Legislative Parliament Mr Alberion Tobiolo when contacted said the SPLA soldiers came at the border point after concerned residents at Misingo reported heavy presence of UPDF soldiers.
“Our soldiers rushed at the scene where the surveyors had reached as they carried on with their road works. They were accompanied by too many UPDF soldiers who sacred off the residents in the area. Otherwise there is no tension and our men didn’t invade Ugandan border,” Mr Tobiolo said.
This is not the first time the South Sudanese soldiers are claiming a part of Uganda as their own. In August, more than 200 armed militias from Magwi county in South Sudan raided 9 kilometers into Ugandan territory at Lokung Sub-county in Lamwo claiming it belongs to them. They were later flushed out by the UPDF leaving one of the militias dead while property including South Sudan registered motorcycles were recovered. Cases of cattle rustling has also been regular on the Uganda side of the border, allegedly carried out by South Sudanese cattle rustlers. Locals say a total of 400 cattle and 392 goats have been looted from Lamwo by armed men suspected to be from South Sudan. They did not give a time frame in which the cows and goats were looted.
