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Deployment of UPDF in South Sudan worries Acholi leaders
A South Sudanese woman at Elegu refugee transit site in Amuru District recently. PHOTO By Stephen Okello.
What you need to know:
Retired Bishop of Kitgum says Ugandan soldiers are dying in a war that should not be theirs.
Gulu
Leaders in Acholi sub-region have responded with apprehension to government’s deployment of UPDF in what they termed as a “tribal conflict” in the neighbouring South Sudan.
During a meeting organised by Action Aid and Refugee Law Project at Boma Hotel in Gulu Town on Monday, religious, civil society and local leaders observed that while evacuation of Ugandans was noble, taking sides in the conflict was risky.
Retired Bishop of Kitgum Macleod Baker Ochola pointed out that the government’s nobility was messed up when it advanced into military combat. “It’s a big waste of financial resources for the country to fight a war resulting from bad governance and tribal differences,” Bishop Ochola said. “There were two decades of war in the north, is there any country that came to intervene? Why would Uganda go into South Sudan that has had a long history of wars?”
The leaders said the conflict in the neighbouring country is an in-house problem within the SPLM/A government, which could be solved by the two factions or humanitarian organisations other than Uganda. “Our soldiers are dying in the war that shouldn’t be theirs and the government is still continuing with the military intervention,” Bishop Ochola said.
The regional ambassador Invisible Children Uganda, Ms Jolly Grace Okot, said the military intervention of the UPDF in South Sudan could have some impact in northern Uganda that is just recovering from the two-decade LRA war.
However, while addressing the Army Council at Bombo army barracks recently, President Museveni said he deployed the UPDF in South Sudan to save the country from collapsing. “I sent troops to South Sudan which is affected by a conflict. We did not want them to collapse,” the President said, adding that the two main groups in South Sudan led by president Salva Kiir and Ms Rebecca Garang are on the side of the Uganda government.
