SUSPECTED armed Congolese soldiers yesterday raided a market in Arua district and looted animals as well as merchandise.
The Police yesterday said they were investigating the afternoon incursion into Kampala market in Logiri sub- county.
The market, a popular hub for food and other items like timber, lies astride the Uganda-Congo border. It is frequented by traders from as far as southern Sudan and Lira.
Arua Police boss Julius Salube said the raid took place at about 4:30pm but added that no one was injured.
Earlier reports had said the Congolese army had detained Uganda officials who had pursued them following the incident in which the marauding soldiers shot in the air.
Salube said they had no reports of Ugandans being detained. He pointed out that they had launched investigations into the incident though preliminary information suggested that the attackers were Congolese soldiers.
State minister for transport Simon Ejua, who is the MP for Vurra county where the market is located, said last night that this was not the first time the Congolese had caused trouble in his constituency.
“Recently, they crossed into my county and killed some one,” Ejua complained. He said the Congolese soldiers were indisciplined.
Sources said the soldiers were from the Alibe detachment near Aruu town in Congo.
On Wednesday this week, a crucial meeting between the energy ministers from Congo and Uganda over oil was cancelled abruptly after Kinshasa withdrew its delegation.
The meeting had been called to defuse tensions between the two countries after two shooting incidents in the last two months along the common border on Lake Albert, an important new frontier in the search for oil.
In the most recent border shooting last month, the UPDF said one Congolese soldier was killed and one Ugandan wounded when a rescue mission went after an oil exploration vessel that had been seized by MONUC, the UN peacekeeping mission in Congo.
UN officials, however, said six civilians were killed when Ugandan soldiers opened fire on a Congolese passenger boat on Lake Albert.
MONUC justified its seizure of the boat belonging to Heritage Oil, claiming it had crossed into Congolese waters, an allegation the company denies. Uganda sent a protest note to MONUC, while the Congolese Government protested to Uganda. The border row exposes longstanding suspicion on both sides stemming from Congo’s 1998-2003 war.
