Security Agencies Warned against Aiding Illegal Activities on Lake Albert

Top Security officers in the Albertine region have warned some of their own against taking advantage of the ongoing lockdown to aid illegal activities on the Lake Albert.  

The Ugandan border with the Democratic Republic of Congo was closed in March, as part of a lockdown occasioned by the outbreak of the COVID-19 Pandemic. Subsequently, the government heavily deployed teams comprising Uganda Peoples Defense Forces-UPDF and Uganda Police Force to guard the closed Border along the shores of Lake Albert.

However, members of the public in the districts of Kikuube, Hoima and Buliisa have severally accused the UPDF and Police personnel of conniving with DRC businessmen who continue entering the country through Lake Albert creating a risk for spreading the COVID-19 virus in the Albertine region.

Major General Sam Okiding, the Commander of the UPDF Field Artillery Division in Masindi has warned the security teams against engaging in such illegal activities. Okiding says his office has received complaints from area residents pinning the officers for soliciting bribes from DRC nationals to allow them to enter the country.

Okiding tasked Ugandans settling along the shores of Lake Albert to avail his office with information about officers carrying out illegal activities on the lake saying the role of the deployed officers is to stop the illegal entry of DRC nationals and not to facilitate illegalities.

He said: “Security is not for a soldier alone, security is for all the citizens, when you find such information, pass it to the leaders. I have also got such allegations. Even now I am going to meet some people who have helped and given us me some date. They gave us the initial data which helped us to close the landing site, they gave us the same data which helped us to arrest some people who were misbehaving. You know there are a lot interests there, any information we shall receive….”

He also called upon the residents to be vigilant and added that the security team cannot maintain the security of the entire Albertine Graben in isolation.

The Area Resident District Commissioner-RDC Samuel Kisembo says it is wrong to allow foreign nationals to cross into the country at a time when Uganda is struggling to contain a lethal virus.

Kisembo says that soldiers who were involved in illegalities are under investigation.

“It is wrong to allow any activity on Lake Albert. All the borders are closed for human movement like moving from here to Congo on water, that’s unacceptable and we are going to investigate these allegations that point at our security teams that they are conniving to allow illegal immigrants and other people to cross over to Congo and back to Uganda. This is a serious allegation which we cannot just take lightly and if we really allow people to cross in and out anyhow then we are going to have trouble because what is in DRC is really not good news to this country because they have high cases of COVID-19 and they have an outbreak of Ebola. If we just allow people to move in and an out and come back at will, we will have done a disservice to this country.”

According to Kisembo, the only activities that are allowed to take place on the lake are day fishing and transportation of Cargo that has been cleared by Uganda Revenue Authority-URA through the gazetted entry points at Kaiso in Hoima and Sebigoro in Kikuube.

“Apart from day fishing and cargo that is cleared by Uganda Revenue Authority to move to DR Congo or from DRC to Uganda through the gazette points, that is Kaiso and Sebigoro. So all borders are closed to human movements, like moving from here to Congo on water; that is unacceptable.”

Patrick Musinguzi, a resident of Kaiso Landing Site says the security personnel have turned the lake into a source of livelihood, disregarding all security and social threats from their activities.  He wants the government to allow fishermen to resume their normal operations since even the deployment did not come as a solution to the threats posed by the pandemic.

Augustus Kyaligonza, a resident of Bugoma landing site in Kikuube district questions the role of top security personnel in the region saying they have failed to supervise their juniors.

In April, the Kikuube district COVID-19 taskforce accused security personnel operating along the Lake Albert shores of allegedly receiving bribes from the Congolese nationals to aid their illegal entry into the country something they said is frustrating their efforts of combating the spread of the disease.

Kikuube, Hoima, Buliisa and Kagadi districts in Bunyoro sub-region are at the porous border points with the Eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo which is also battling the deadly COVID-19 pandemic and Ebola Zaire cases.