Karimojong warriors kill UPDF major

Oct 30, 2006

Karimojong warriors on Sunday morning shot dead 16 soldiers including the commanding officer of the UPDF 67th battalion.

By Nathan Etengu     
Karimojong warriors on Sunday morning shot dead 16 soldiers including the commanding officer of the UPDF 67th battalion.
Maj. Kaamu Rwanshande, a lieutenant and 14 soldiers were killed during a cordon and search operation at Lopuyo village, Rengen sub-county about five miles north of Kotido town, acting UPDF 3rd division commander Lt. Col. A.B. Ndahura and the UPDF spokesman, Maj. Felix Kulayigye, said yesterday.
“We have instituted a board of inquiry to establish what went wrong and the details shall be made public,” Kulayigye said in a statement.
He said the operation followed complaints that there had been persistent attacks on motorists in the Morungole hills in Kaabong district, where several people died and thousands of head of cattle rustled. There were also reports of hundreds of armed warriors in Lopuyo parish of Lengeni, in Kotido district. The army also killed 11 warriors.
“The army moved in for cordon and search operations to get the guns from the warriors. Before the cordon could be completed, gunfire erupted from inside and outside the cordoned area,” Kulayigye added.
A reliable source said, “after the force had surrounded the homestead, he (Rwanshande) moved with two of his escorts to announce the presence of the soldiers in the area and the purpose of the exercise.”
The source said some warriors who seemed to have been tipped off about the operation and taken cover within the perimeter fence in the homestead opened fire at the officer and the soldiers.
The soldiers fought their way out of the trap and managed to return to their base at Nakapelimoru.
Rwashande fought in the Democratic Republic of Congo under a unit commanded by Col. Sula Ssemakula.
The unit, upon return to Uganda, was temporarily deployed at Iriiri on the Katakwi-Moroto border before he was deployed at the UPDF 75th battalion in Kapedo, Kaabong district.
His unit was later shifted to Okwany in Lira district, where it routed the LRA rebels from the area.
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