From Karangwa to Ntaganda: Why hatred against the Banyarwanda is boiling in Museveni’s Uganda: NTAGANDA STRIKES AGAIN: Tycoon Dragged To Court For Grabbing Bat Valley Land

 

NTAGANDA STRIKES AGAIN: Tycoon Dragged To Court For Grabbing Bat Valley Land…

https://www.thegrapevine.co.ug/ntaganda-strikes-again-tycoon-dragged-to-court-for-grabbing-bat-valley-land/  

September 10, 2021

 

Controversial City Tycoon Ephraim Ntaganda has been dragged to the High Court Civil Division over grabbing Bat Valley land.

In a suit before Justice Simon Zirintuusa, Damani Lyoti and Herm Damani, who are directors and shareholders of Bat Valley Bar and Restaurant, they accused Ntaganda and a one Ivan Byaruhanga of trespassing on their land registered on Plot 2, Semuliki Walk, LRV 4464, Folio 23.

The plaintiffs told Court that they were registered on the said land in 1994 on a lease which was extended to 2025 by the Directorate of Physical Planning with recommendation from the secretary Kampala District Land Board.

To their surprise, on 29th May 2021, they received a phone call from their staff that there was a stranger who stormed their land at night, overpowered the security guards and put a container in an attempt to fence it off using iron sheets.

“The respondents forcefully destroyed properties and even deployed private security guards from KPI security. They also erected signs purporting re-entry by the Kampala District Land Board. This was immediately reported to Wandegeya police station, with file reference 17/28/08/21 for Criminal trespass,” the plaintiff reads in parts.

They further stated that Ntaganda confronted them and threatened them that they will have it rough if they didn’t leave his land which he owned together with Byaruhanga.

Bat Valley Restaurant staff after being evicted from their restaurant

When they asked him for documents, he only showed them the container which he forcefully placed on their land.

“We subsequently found out that another Title had been issued on 27th of August 2021 to a one Ivan Byaruhanga in consideration of Shs. 142,720,000. This is for one Acre of Land in the middle of Kampala City. We have been given no notice or warning to defend our position in the face of re-entry,” plaintiffs stated.

They told Court that the respondents fraudulently transferred the land title to Buko Minerals and Oil Limited in the names of Augustine Rutaganda, Allan Muzima, Barbara Nalubega who were listed as the shareholders of the said company on 2^nd September 2021.

They told the Court that because they wanted to save their land, they placed a caveat on it.

In a defense he filed at the same court, Ntaganda said that he acquired the lease on the land on 27^th August 2021 from Kampala District Land Board who are in charge of all public land under Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA).

Last week, Justice Ziruntuusa issued an interim order staying the status quo until the matter is disposed of.

The judge set 14^th of September 2021 to kick off the hearing of the matter.

The name Ntaganda is synonymous with land grabbing in Kampala.

In 2018, Ntaganda was detained on orders of the Land Probe Commission Chairperson Justice Catherine Bamugemereire to explain how he convinced the Commissioner Land Registrar to acquire what she said were illegal titles in wetlands and forest reserve land owned by government.

Ntaganda had appeared before the Commission on allegations that it was him who sold the 350 acres of Kajjansi Forest Reserve to a one Eria Mubiru at $2.5 million (Sh9bn).

Ntaganda was also sighted in the grabbing of East Kololo Primary School land along Naguru by-pass together with tycoon Muhamood Bharwani of Bharwani group of companies and Francis Kakumba of prestigious apartments limited.

 

By Sengooba Alirabaki

 

Bwanika Warns Land Grabbers in Kayunga

https://ugandaradionetwork.net/story/bwanika-warns-land-grabbers-in-kayunga

Aldon Walukamba

23 Nov 2015 

 

People\'s Development Party (PDP) presidential candidate Dr. Abed Bwanika warns people who intimidate locals and grab land from them in Kayunga.

Bwanika says he will deal with such people if he is voted into office. He accuses such people of leading to poverty in the country by disrupting economic activity in Kayunga by evicting people.

Bwanika cited Moses Karangwa, the Kayunga district National Resistance Movement party chairman, who he accused of evicting people from their land.

According to Bwanika, people who grab land can not be tolerated and promised to allow the affected people to decide what they want to do with their land.

Speaking to Uganda radio Network on phone, Karangwa said Bwanika should leave him out of his campaigns, and focus on his rivals in the presidential race.

Bwanika was Monday afternoon campaigning in Kayunga district.

Addressing supporters at Kayunga Taxi Park, Bwanika urged Ugandans to scrutinize candidates before the 2016 elections, so that they choose people who will support development.  

Land Grab Scandals Haunt Karangwa out of NRM Race

https://witness.co.ug/land-grab-scandals-haunt-karangwa-out-of-nrm-race/  

 

August 17, 2020 SADAB KITATTA  

 

 

Moses Karangwa, the outgoing Kayunga NRM district chairperson, is one of the candidates that the ruling party’s Central Executive Committee (CEC) has asked to quit the race over integrity concerns.

Karangwa is one of the candidates that were interested to join NRM’s topmost policy organ, CEC, as vice-chairperson for the central.
However, his candidature attracted several petitions linking him to land grab scandals in various parts of the country.

He was in the race with former minister, Hajji Abdul Nadduli, businessman Muhammad Kibedi Nsegumire, little known John Magaro and Tourism state minister Godfrey Kiwanda Ssuubi.

When the list was presented before CEC for vetting last Wednesday, Nadduli was asked by his colleagues at CEC to quit the race on account of his old age.

According to sources, the NRM top brass considered the threat posed by the generational political card being popularized by Kyadondo East MP and presidential aspirant, Robert Kyagulanyi.

“The party needs people who can counter Kyagulanyi, to do that, we need young and energetic people who will be able to run around to mobilise,” a source said.

For Karangwa, sources said, some members of CEC expressed discomfort in having him joining the organ because of his name always appearing in land grabbing allegations in several parts of the country.

For instance in February this year, his name was mentioned in connection to the killing of a 33-year-old man at Kanyogoga in Butoloogo sub-county, Mubende district.

The deceased, Vincent Karemera, was tortured to death by security guards attached to Karangwa’s security firm – Skariatic Group that he deployed in the area to evict people off the land.

NRM’s deputy secretary-general, Richard Todwong confirmed at the weekend that Karangwa is one of the candidates that the party leadership was engaging to quit the race.

“There are so many issues around his name. He is involved in many things, he is in leadership in Kayunga and Jinja, but there are also other issues like in Mubende and elsewhere,” Todwong said.

“We mind about the integrity of the party… There are yardsticks we use to vet people who want to be leaders in the party,” he added.

The NRM will hold the National Delegates Conference from August 19-20 at the district level in which new party leaders will be elected. 

 

 

Nantaba told: You will die like Kaweesi

https://observer.ug/news/headlines/62478-nantaba-told-you-will-die-like-kaweesi

October 30, 2019

 

Written by BAKER BATTE

 

From March 24, 2019, when a police officer shot and killed 40-year-old Ronald Ssebulime, accused of trailing, with intent to kill minister IDAH ERIOSI NANTABA, she has told bits and pieces of her side of the story.

Ssebulime was summarily executed in broad daylight and Nantaba insists the man was killed to shut him up though some claim he was a victim of mistaken identity. When she finally tells her full side of the story— when she reveals all the sordid details and finally connects the dots –the country will probably get a full portrait of who the real mafia is in this country and how it operates.

In another one-page missive emailed to The Observer on Monday, Nantaba, the minister of state for Information and Information Technology and National Guidance, claims a very respected army general in the country who she cannot dare name publicly and some Special Forces Command soldiers are bankrolling her political nemesis in Kayunga, Moses Karangwa, to neutralize her.

She says calling Karangwa her political rival is a ruse being used to veil the gentleman’s evil deeds. She says the real beef between the two stems from her determination to fight land grabbing not only in Kayunga district but across the country.

“These land grabbers upon realizing that I was preparing to unseat the NRM chairperson [Kayunga district], they also asked Karangwa to contest for the same position so as to disguise the land grabbing fight for a political one. Almost everyone believes that the war between me and Karangwa is a political one. That is how mafias fight...” Nantaba writes.

Below is the full missive translated by Baker Batte Lule into English for clarity

KANTABA’S FULL MISSIVE

Karangwa has powerful people, military generals who are backing his land grabs not only in Kayunga but in the whole country.

There are some Special Forces Command [SFC] officers; one called Charity and the other Akampulira who for a long time have been storming my home. One time they invaded my home with soldiers and guns. One soldier in plainclothes told my inquisitive neighbor, who asked to know what soldiers wanted from me with all those guns, – that I was also going to die like [Andrew Felix] Kaweesi [the former Assistant Inspector General of Police] killed near his home in 2017].

Frightened, my neighbor rushed and told me what the soldier had said. We spent two weeks indoors, fearing for our lives. Later they grabbed my bodyguard Tugume and beat him badly. I told the president what had happened to my bodyguard. He responded quickly and asked Sabiiti Muzeyi, now the deputy Inspector General of Police, where he had kept my bodyguard.

Sabiiti told the president that Tugume had assaulted some people in Kayunga in a village called Kirindi. The president asked me to take the two men to him who had been coached by Akampulira to lie that they had been assaulted by Tugume.

One confessed before the president that they were bringing trumped-up charges against Tugume so that he can be withdrawn from me and other bodyguards deployed. Later they deployed a police truck full of soldiers at my home in Busega led by a one Akandiho.

He told me he had been instructed to withdraw my bodyguards and give me others yet the president had already ordered Muzeyi to bring back Tugume. I refused to hand over Tugume. In the meantime, I looked for the president to tell him what had happened. He thanked me for refusing to hand over Tugume because it wasn’t him [president] who had sent Akandiho.

He told me to inform him right away if any other attempt is made to withdraw Tugume. Since then, they have never come back. I knew that generals used Karangwa when a policeman tried to shoot me in October 2015, at night at Kayunga police station.

It was Karangwa commanding the police to kill me. My brother Amos Lugoloobi [Ntenjeru North MP] asked me to go to the police station to see how the ballots were being handled. He had got information that Karangwa was trying to rig for those he supported.

When I arrived, Karangwa ordered the police to shoot me. One actually pointed the gun at me and tried to kill me but a certain man shouted; don’t kill the minister. Before I knew it, I was on the ground. Actually this policeman fired several shots in the air.

Later another police officer sprayed poison on me. I was hospitalized in Kenya for two months without people in the country knowing because they stopped the media from broadcasting the story. The time I spent as state minister for lands, I fought many big people among who was Karangwa who wanted to steal people’s land.

What surprised me most is that every time I tried to help those Karangwa had evicted from their land, I would receive a phone call from a general who this country fears a lot and who no one can dare talk about publicly who advised me to tell the president to put money in the Land Fund to pay for the land Karangwa had grabbed. Some of this land included that of Luyombya.

About 1,000 families had been evicted from that land. I informed the president about the general’s proposal and that is how I discovered that taxpayers’ money is used to compensate for grabbed land. I didn’t support this move and I asked the president to reject the suggestion. Some of my bodyguards were used to stop me from holding meetings about land, which had been grabbed from people.

These would connive with people in State House who tried to stop us from intervening in land grabbing cases. One of my bodyguards, name withheld, was often used to spy on my movements. Actually, impeccable sources told me that this person was in the same area on the same day Ssebulime was suspected of trying to kill me.

Currently, this person was transferred from Nakasero to Entebbe airport. I was told there was a plan to plant narcotics in my travel bag so I could be arrested on my way out of the country. One officer at the airport actually urged me to travel only with a handbag to avoid falling in trouble.

This is how I realized how well-placed the generals working with Karangwa are. There are many people who have lost their lives in Kayunga but Karangwa has never been charged with any offence...Now where is politics in all this?

WHAT KARANGWA SAYS ABOUT NANTABA

Both Nantaba and Karangwa control a group of politicians in Kayunga. Nantaba relies on her popular appeal while Karangwa leverages his cash. In 2015, when the two politicians competed for the position of NRM district chairperson, police had to fire tear gas to disperse their supporters. Karangwa won.

Karangwa in 2016 told The Observer on the sidelines of a rally that his dispute with Nantaba emanates from a business transaction the two had after the 2010 NRM primaries. He said he lent her some money for the 2011 campaigns.

“I gave her Shs 20 million. When I started demanding my money, she turned around and started saying that I was grabbing land. She just turned embarrassment into anger,” Karangwa said in Luganda. The dispute between these two bubbles to the surface every now and then. The NRM must find a way of resolving this protracted quarrel.

 

 

When Dictator Museveni can no longer fool Ugandans: We know you are killing our people: 25 killed in Masaka as Museveni send UPDF troops to Somalia: There is no military deployment in Masaka despite Museveni’s lies that ADF is killing our people: Police blame fresh Masaka killings on land conflicts as Museveni Blames them on ADF

 

You can use your Bogus Uganda media to fool people but you can’t fool God: When Museveni used his Hench men to Kill Kayunga District Chairperson and NUP supporter Feffeka Sserubogo

https://watchmanafrica.blogspot.com/2021/06/you-can-use-your-bogus-uganda-media-to.html

Masaka murders: Two more people killed, toll at 25

https://www.monitor.co.ug/uganda/news/national/masaka-murders-two-more-people-killed-toll-at-25-3529998

Sunday August 29 2021

 By Wilson Kutamba

By GERTRUDE MUTYABA

The machete wielding thugs killed two more people in Masaka and Lwengo districts on Saturday night.
This is in spite of the heavy deployment of joint security forces in the Greater Masaka, following the brutal murders by unknown assailants that have since snuffed 25 lives in just a month.

The deceased have been identified as Henry Kiremba, 81, a retired medical officer and a resident of Kyoko-Kitawongwa  Village, Kkingo Sub County in Lwengo District  and Maria Nakato, 80, a resident of Kitenga village, Nyendo –Mukungwe Division, Masaka City .

Nakato’s home is a few meters away from the home of Masaka City mayor, Ms Florence Namayanja, close to a newly installed security camera along Nyendo-Villa Maria Road.
Kiyemba was killed at around 9pm while Nakato was killed in the later hours of the night according to residents.

The assailants took Kiyemba’s phone and later called his daughter, Ms Rosemary Birabwa, who is currently in Sweden informing her that they had killed her father.
“The killers called his daughter and told her that your father is finished come for burial. It is  her (Rosemary Birabwa) who then started calling relatives asking them about callers who used her father’s phone,” Amon Kamoga one of the relatives told Daily Monitor at the scene.  

According to Ms Hellen Nabuuma, a resident of Kitenga Village in Nyendo -Mukungwe Division, Masaka City, they are hopeless and scared because the situation continues to deteriorate.
“Nobody is safe, security assures us that they are doing everything possible but assailants continue to kill people,” she said.

The machete wielding thugs continue to wreak havoc in Masaka sub region and have since killed 25 since July 22, 2021.

On Saturday the assailants killed Joyce Nantale, 64, together with six-year-old granddaughter only identified as Barbra, both residents of Bwasa village, Kasaana Parish, Kkingo Sub County in Lwengo District.

The assailants whose intentions remain anonymous have mostly been targeting older people between 50-80 years of age, who reside alone.

Mr Muhammad Nsubuga, the Southern Region Police spokesperson confirmed the two incidents saying the hunt for assailants continues.

 

Police blame fresh Masaka killings on land conflicts

https://www.monitor.co.ug/uganda/news/national/police-blame-fresh-masaka-killings-on-land-conflicts-3524970

Wednesday August 25 2021

 By Monitor Team

Police have attributed the latest killings by machete-wielding assailants in Greater Masaka to unresolved land matters.

Available records show that between July 22 and August 23, 13 people have been killed by machete-wielding thugs while 14 others are currently nursing serious injuries in the districts of Sembabule, Lwengo, Lyantonde, Masaka and Bukomansimbi.

Mr Muhammad Nsubuga, the police spokesperson for southern region, said their preliminary investigations reveal that most of the incidents are linked to land wrangles...

The land conflicts, Mr Nsubuga said, are majorly between the family members and sometimes their neighbours who secretly hire assailants to kill their targets.

“Some of the murder victims, for example, in Lyantonde where a milk dealer, Edison Katema, was killed last Friday; the reports have got indicate that the deceased was involved in a land wrangle with a one Muhumuza and the matter is still in court,” he said during an interview on Monday.

The latest two incidents occurred on Sunday when 87-year-old Diriisa Matovu, a resident of Kikungwe Village, Kimaanya-Kabonera Division in Masaka City, and 60-year-old Richard Mbaziira, a catechist of Kyabbogo Village in Kkingo Sub-county, Lwengo District, were killed in cold blood under unclear circumstances.

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Last week, five murder cases were reported to police; four in Lwengo, and one in Lyantonde.

Mr Kaniini Kato, a resident of Katagyengera Village in Lyantonde District, who is a relative of Katema, said the deceased had gone to supply milk as his daily routine. But he did not come back home, which prompted family members to launch a hunt for him only to find a grave near his home. The relatives alerted police that exhumed the body last Friday.

Mr Eric Ntege, the chairperson of Katagengera Village, confirmed that Katema’s family has been embroiled in a long standing land dispute with the family of another resident only identified as Muhumuza and the case is at Masaka High Court.

But Mr Kabi Ssenkatuuka, the chairperson of Kyabbogo Village, said Mzee Richard Mbaziira was never involved any land wrangle.

 “He [Mbaziira] had no children and was not involved in any land wrangles because the land where he built his house was offered to him by his late father and there was no one claiming it,” he added.=

Mr Nsubuga said police have so far arrested 19 people in connection to the last killings in Greater Masaka.

 “Among the suspects include a witch doctor from Byangiri Village whom we suspect has knowledge about one of the latest murder incidents in Lwengo,” Mr Nsubuga said.

Mr Mathias Mpuuga, the Nyendo-Mukungwe legislator, faulted police for not doing enough motorised and foot patrols at night when most of these killings occur.

“This country has been under curfew since last year as a result of Covid-19 and people in villages enter their houses by 7pm.If security agencies like police were doing their work as expected, they could be in position to get those assailants on the way before they attack their targets,” Mr Mpuuga, who is also the Leader of the Opposition in Parliament, said.

Police urged

Mr Aloysius Kibira, the chairperson of Kkingo Sub-county in Lwengo District, urged police to carry out thorough investigations and get to the bottom of the killings in the area.

“The village where the latest murder has happened is just next to Ttaga Village where two of our army reserve officers were murdered, but police have never given us a single report about the recent killings and now another person is killed,” Mr Kibira wondered.

Speaking about the deteriorating security situation in the area on Monday, Mr Paul Nkore, the southern regional police commander, urged residents of Kyabbogo Village to strengthen the neighbourhood watch system, which police introduced some years ago to curb crime.

“I have just been   posted to Masaka where I have spent barely one month but to my dismay, a person is killed every day. I am starting to blame myself for coming here because it seems I brought kisirani (misfortune)  to this  region,”  Mr  Nkore said, before blaming residents “for failing to report criminals yet they know some of them.”

Police have downplayed reports of having a rebel group operating in the area as earlier leaflets dropped in Bukomansimbi indicated, insisting that these are hard-core criminals.

Looking back

The latest attacks on residents in Masaka bring back ugly memories of night attacks on people’s homes by machete–wielding thugs between 2017 and 2018. The attackers would send prior notices warning to attack residents. Like in previous attacks which occurred nearly five years ago, the latest attackers don’t reveal their intent to kill, but on breaking into homes, they hack their target and later vanish without taking possession of any items, be it money.

We're planning to attack ADF terrorists in DR Congo – Museveni

https://www.monitor.co.ug/uganda/news/national/we-re-planning-to-attack-adf-terrorists-in-dr-congo-museveni-3528446

Saturday August 28 2021

 By DAVID VOSH AJUNA

President Museveni Friday accused the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) armed rebel group of being behind plans and orders to kill Ugandans after security foiled a planned suicide terror attack in the country.

'‘The plans and orders for killing our people are coming from the terrorists in Eastern Congo. We are continuing to discuss with HE Felix Tshisekedi about eliminating that cancer,” he said. 

On Thursday, security forces arrested Abdul Katumba, alias Ben with Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) targeting mourners at the former Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIGP) Lt Gen Paul Lokech’s burial. 

According to Mr Museveni, this was retaliation by the ADF following Mr Lokech’s role in massive arrests of ADF elements in Uganda as well as his valiant efforts in ousting Al-Shabab terrorists from Mogadishu in Somalia.  

“This was a shock to the ADF because they had got used to the uncaring actors that would not dig deep even when the clues were abundant. That is why, apparently, the ADF were now targeting Lokech as a person,” he said. 

Through his condolence message to the family of Lt Gen Lokech, Mr Museveni August 27 warned that he was moving closer to launching an offensive to halt the incursion of the armed terrorist group based in North Kivu, Eastern Congo.

Peace eludes South Sudan almost a decade since Pope Francis’ Shoe Kisses: A catholic system that worship the dead cannot bring peace anywhere but death: South Sudan at risk of ‘large scale conflict’: UN report: Ugandans demand bodies of truck drivers killed in South Sudan

 

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Catholic Political Psychology: Can Carnal Efforts lead to Peace?? Pope Francis kneels to kiss the feet of rival South Sudan leaders as he begs them to avoid a return to civil war 

 https://watchmanafrica.blogspot.com/2019/04/catholic-political-psychology-can.html  

South Sudan at risk of ‘large scale conflict’: UN report

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/4/27/south-sudan-at-risk-of-large-scale-conflict-un-report  

 

Experts warn that the slow pace of reforms and political disputes are threatening a 2018 peace deal that halted a bloody civil war.

 nsions are fraying between President Salva Kiir’s government and supporters of First Vice President Riek Machar [File: Alex Mcbride/AFP]

27 Apr 2021

 

A United Nations report warns that the slow implementation of a revitalised peace accord in South Sudan risks pushing the country back into a “large-scale conflict”.

Political, military and ethnic divisions in South Sudan are widening, leading to multiple violent incidents between the main signatories to last year’s ceasefire, the possibility of renewed war, and nearly 100,000 people facing “famine-like conditions”, it said.

 cord in South Sudan risks pushing the country back into a “large-scale conflict”.

Political, military and ethnic divisions in South Sudan are widening, leading to multiple violent incidents between the main signatories to last year’s ceasefire, the possibility of renewed war, and nearly 100,000 people facing “famine-like conditions”, it said.

In the 81-page report sent to the UN Security Council on Monday, a panel of experts said slow-moving reforms by President Salva Kiir’s government and more than a year of political disputes and disagreements over how to implement the February 2020 ceasefire and a 2018 peace agreement has led to frayed relations between Kiir and First Vice President Riek Machar.

Discontent within Kiir’s Sudan People’s Liberation Movement and his power base in the Dinka ethnic group over his handling of the transition “has led to calls for new leadership”, said the report.

It quoted multiple confidential sources in Kiir’s camp as saying divisions had formed over the distribution of government positions and the president’s attempts “to manage internal tensions among his supporters had failed and resulted in security incidents outside the capital”.

 

As for Machar, the panel said his inability to influence the government’s decision-making or spur implementation of the ceasefire has led the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-Army in Opposition, which the vice president heads, to begin “to break apart”.

Some political and military leaders in Machar’s camp are challenging his leadership, and some officers have defected to the government, the experts said.

400,000 people killed

There were high hopes for peace and stability once oil-rich South Sudan gained its independence from Sudan in 2011. But the country slid into ethnic violence in December 2013 when forces loyal to Kiir started battling those loyal to Machar, his former vice president who belongs to the Nuer ethnic group.

Numerous attempts at peace failed, including a deal that saw Machar return as vice president in 2016 only to flee months later amid renewed fighting. The civil war has killed nearly 400,000 people and displaced millions.

Intense international pressure followed the recent peace deal and coalition government led by Kiir, with Machar as his deputy. But the government has failed to achieve many reforms, including completing the unification of army command, graduating a unified force, and reconstituting the Transitional National Legislative Assembly.

“Given the concerns of civil society, political leaders and military officials regarding the ability of the agreement to bring lasting peace to South Sudan and their nascent calls for Mr Kiir and Mr Machar to step down, urgent engagement is needed to avert a return to large-scale conflict,” the panel said.

 “Given the concerns of civil society, political leaders and military officials regarding the ability of the agreement to bring lasting peace to South Sudan and their nascent calls for Mr Kiir and Mr Machar to step down, urgent engagement is needed to avert a return to large-scale conflict,” the panel said.

 ng that two and a half years after the signing of the peace agreement, its momentum has waned. They said officials from Kiir and Machar’s parties also mainly agreed “the slow pace of implementation and the shifting political stances of some of the signatories had made the agreement unlikely to be implemented”.

The panel also said the unity government has failed to improve protections of the rights of civilians “who have faced continued threats from government security forces and armed groups”.

The international famine warning system has reported that about half of South Sudan’s population faces “high levels of acute food insecurity”, and more than 92,000 people living in several areas – including the Greater Pibor Administrative Area, northern Bahr al-Ghazal and Warrap – “were facing famine-like conditions as of early March 2021”, the experts said.

 

The international famine warning system has reported that about half of South Sudan’s population faces “high levels of acute food insecurity”, and more than 92,000 people living in several areas – including the Greater Pibor Administrative Area, northern Bahr al-Ghazal and Warrap – “were facing famine-like conditions as of early March 2021”, the experts said.

The people of South Sudan “are in need of humanitarian assistance in 2021 than ever before”, the report said.

“Despite the humanitarian needs of 8.5 million people, the government has imposed bureaucratic barriers to the delivery of humanitarian aid, and ongoing conflict has prevented its safe delivery,” it added.

 

The experts also called for an arms embargo, which is set to expire at the end of May, to be kept in place and for new sanctions against those hindering implementation of the revived 2018 peace agreement and obstructing the delivery of humanitarian aid.

They also called for an independent assessment of how the government is managing its arms stockpiles.

 

Ugandans demand bodies of truck drivers killed in South Sudan

https://www.independent.co.ug/ugandans-demand-bodies-of-truck-drivers-killed-in-south-sudan/  

The Independent August 29, 2021

 

 

Arua, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Long-distance truck drivers have demanded the release of four bodies of their colleagues killed in South Sudan.

Between July and August 2021, four truck drivers one Ugandan and three Kenyans delivering cargo goods to South Sudan’s capital, Juba were shot dead by unknown gunmen while dozens of them remain hospitalized to nurse gunshot wounds.

Sudi Mwatela, the Chairperson of Long-Distance Truck Drivers Association revealed that several truckers remain uncounted for. He identified the dead truckers as Musa Kalyowa, Isaac Ouma Ofwa, Haruna Abdullahi Ore and Issa Salat.

Last week, the truck drivers protested the killings of their colleagues by parking their trucks at Elegu Township in Amuru District demanding security guarantees on the highway and bodies of their slain colleagues.

Joseph Nyeko, a taxi operator plying the Elegu-Nimule-Nimule-Juba route says they have also suspended their operations after nine passengers aboard a Noah taxi were all killed in an ambush in Jubek County.

Geoffrey Oceng Osborn, the Amuru Resident District Commissioner says that they have resolved that the truckers conduct their strike peacefully without inconveniencing activities at the Ugandan boar side.

Oceng further explained that they also rallied the drivers from the different member states to contact their respective consulates in South Sudan to present their grievances to the Juba administration.

In April, the truckers suspended travels to South Sudan following increased deadly attacks on foreign drivers that resulted in the death of more than 15 drivers and left dozens injured. Over 40 cargo trucks were also torched between March and April.

The resurgence of armed violence continues to threaten trade within the East African bloc. South Sudan is a landlocked country that heavily relies on neighbours – Rwanda, Burundi, Uganda, Tanzania, and Kenya for the importation of essential goods and supplies to support her economy.

*****

URN