Fisherman shot dead in Lake Kyoga attack

By Godfrey Ojore

Unknown assailants attacked two fishermen on Lake Kyoga and shot dead one of them, a father of two.

The encounter reportedly turned deadly after the attackers asked the two men for a matchbox.

Police say the incident happened at around 11pm local time Wednesday on the waters of Lake Kyoga – shared by three districts; Kaberamido, Serere and Soroti.

It is not clear what the assailants’ initial motive when they approached Robert Obolo, 22, and his friend Martin Etwomu who were out fishing in the deep of the night.

But what turned clear was that when they asked the fishermen for a matchbox, and they responded that they did not have any, a gun was instantly drawn and a shot fired.

“When the two [fishermen] replied to them that they had not carried a matchbox, these people drew a gun and shot dead Obolo,” said Juma Hassan Nyene, the police spokesperson of Eastern region.

“Etwomu survived after he jumped into the water.”

The assailants disappeared into the darkness and are still at large.

The slain fisherman was a resident of Ogongai village, Kamuda sub-county in Soroti district.

His body was later taken to Soroti government mortuary for an autopsy before being handed over to relatives for burial on Friday.

Nyene explained that illegal guns are still many in the Teso sub-region and that they are being used to kill innocent people.

"The problem of illegal guns is still big in Teso and we are calling upon the communities to report people who are still in possession of the illegal guns to security,” he appealed.

Last weekend, the state minister for disaster preparedness, Musa Ecweru while attending a mass wedding at Amolo Church of Uganda in Amuria district, said that people who are in possession of illegal guns deserve to be killed.

"It's good for us to eliminate one wrong member of the community who is carrying an illegal gun for killing others. That can help us save the majority of people," the minister said.

Teso got flooded with illegal guns during the UPA war in the early 1990s where many people engaged in rebel activities.