Police has said the death toll from Wednesday’s deadly tribal clash between the Madi and the Acholi over a border dispute between Amuru and Adjumani districts has risen to three.
Speaking in Gulu on Thursday, the Aswa River region police spokesman Jimmy Patrick Okema said the third victim had passed on bringing the dead from the Wednesday clash to three. Okema said police is yet to identity the latest victim.
On Wednesday, two men identified as Saidi Nyeko Openy a resident of Acholi Ber and Bosco Okwera Oringa, a resident of Lulai, all in Apaa Parish, in Pabbo Sub County, Amuru were killed in the violence.
Fresh violence in Apaa Parish was sparked by an alleged abduction of a group of traders from Adjumani district by a group from Amuru.
Police spokesman Okema said a total of 31 huts were torched during the clashes. He said men armed with bows and arrows, machetes and spears raided the Apaa. The fight, according to the police, left four residents critically injured and another 15 with serious injuries. Locals in Apaa say the number of the injured is higher than the police figure.
The injured are in St Mary’s Hospital- Lacor in Gulu with life threatening wounds while five of the survivor are receiving treatment at Pabbo Health Centre III in Amuru district and are reported to be in stable condition.
Police says tension that led to the clash started to build up on June 2, 2017 when a group of 10 people believed to be from the Adjumani were allegedly abducted by a group of men from the Apaa, in Amuru district. The abducted men from Adjumani were reportedly warned not to cross from Adjumani to Amuru. Later on after the allegedly abducted men from Adjumani were released, they went home mobilised and launched an assault on Apaa on the Amuru side, resulting into the Wednesday violence. They were armed with rudimentary tool which they also used to kill animals like goats.
Apaa is a remote area about 100 kilometres from the nearest police station with limited access to mobile telephone network. Michael Lakony, the Amuru district LCV visited the area on Wednesday and said he expects the number of victims of the violence to rise. Lakony added that some residents of the Apaa on the Amuru side have fled into the bushes.
In March this year, Joseph Onek, 35, was killed during a similar clash and a total of 104 grass-thatched huts were also set on fire.
Apaa village is a hotbed of violence as government and local communities fight over the ownership of 40 square miles of land.
While the residents claim that the land is in Amuru, the government on the other hand says the land is part of Adjumani district.
In 2015 the Ministry of Lands planted markstones to indicate that the contested land is in Adjumani and not Amuru district.
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Acwali wu kwena me Kumu na bot Luot Too ma gurwenyo kwo pa Wod gii,ki amedo cwalo kwena na bot Wadi,Lurem,Lodite ki Mege ma gitye iwang arem me tim aranyi pa Lumadi ma watene kwedgi i Apaa.
Amito jinyo cwiny jo ma gunongo awana me ret mapat pat ma gitye kede i ot Yat Lacor ki jo ma tye ka nongo Yat ki i Pabbo Health Centre.
Alego Vulu me bedo ki wang mabit me Gwoko Apaa,RIBE aye KERO me Ryemo MEROK.