Rebel tension grips West Nile

Dec 05, 2002

Tension is building up in Yumbe and Arua districts following reports that the UNRF II rebels have ganged up with rebels of renegade UPDF officers, colonels Samson Mande and Anthony Kyakabale, to attack Yumbe, Arua and Pakwach towns

By Emmy Allio

Tension is building up in Yumbe and Arua districts following reports that the UNRF II rebels have ganged up with rebels of renegade UPDF officers, colonels Samson Mande and Anthony Kyakabale, to attack Yumbe, Arua and Pakwach towns.

Helicopter gunships, tanks, mambas and hundreds of heavily-armed ready-to-fight troops have been deployed in the area, causing anxiety.

Security sources said Mande and Kyakabale are recruiting in Arua, Nebbi and Yumbe districts for their rebel People’s Redemption Army (PRA) and taking the recruits to north-eastern DR Congo.

Top security sources said West Nile-based members of Col. Kizza Besigye’s Reform Agenda had hijacked the UNRF II leadership. The sources blamed them for influencing the rebels into making unrealistic demands to the Government.

On Monday, the Reserve Force Commander, Lt. Gen. Salim Saleh, and President Yoweri Museveni’s military assistant, Brig. Kale Kaihura, rushed to Arua to diffuse the situation.

Eriya Kategaya, the internal affairs minister and government’s chief negotiator with the Bamuze group, is expected to travel to Arua soon, sources said.

On Wednesday, UNRF II rebels reportedly circulated letters to foreign missions accredited to Uganda, saying the Government was moving in to disarm them.

They accused the Government of not being committed to the peace talks. They threatened to return to war unless their demands were met.

On Thursday, tanks and armoured personnel carriers commonly referred to as mambas, caused a stir on the Karuma-Pakwach-Arua road as they rolled into Yumbe on the Sudan border.

Such massive arms and troop build-up was last witnessed in West Nile in 1996/7 when the UPDF clashed and finally decimated the West Nile Bank Front (WNBF).

Bamuze’s Uganda National Rescue Front - Part Two is a splinter group of WNBF. UNRF II operated in Rojo in Sudan but relocated to Bidi-Bidi on the border as their leaders pursued peace.

“The Yumbe deployment is precautionary. Insecurity has been developing there. We have to be alert,” defence minister Amama Mbabazi said yesterday.

President Yoweri Museveni recently said any group threatening to fight Uganda will be crushed.

About a week ago, Kaihura was held at gun-point and frog-matched by the rebels at the Bidi-Bidi camp as he delivered a message from Museveni.

Bantariza said Saleh and Kaihura delivered Museveni’s message to Bamuze “aimed at diffusing the tension.” He said, “We deployed as a precautionary measure after they (rebels) behaved belligerently when they frog-matched Kaihura.”

Bamuze wants the presidential amnesty extended to Joseph Kony, the LRA leader and unconditional return from exile of former presidents Milton Obote and Idi Amin.

The rebels also want top posts in the UPDF as well as ministerial and diplomatic positions. The Government has rejected this.

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