Prime
UPDF arrest suspected rebel commander
Howard Openjulu, suspect
What you need to know:
The military intelligence told Sunday Monitor that their operatives tracked Openjuru from Paidah in West Nile up to Njeru Municipality in Buikwe District, where the suspected rebel leader was intercepted on Friday evening.
- “We did not use gunfire during his arrest and he is expected to be interrogated over his subversive activities,” the source said.
The Chieftaincy of Military Intelligence (CMI) has said it has arrested Howard Openjulu, the suspected leader of Uganda Homeland Liberation Force (UHLF), a rebel movement, which reportedly attacked an army detachment in Zombo, West Nile, in July this year.
The reported attack in Zombo, some 485 kilometres outside of Kampala, left at least two soldiers dead.
In another attack in 2020, the same rebel movement killed five soldiers before fleeing back to the jungles of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The military intelligence told Sunday Monitor that their operatives tracked Openjuru from Paidah in West Nile up to Njeru Municipality in Buikwe District, where the suspected rebel leader was intercepted on Friday evening.
“We did not use gunfire during his arrest and he is expected to be interrogated over his subversive activities,” the source said.
Openjuru had earlier been facing charges of treason at the General Court Martial, but on being released on bail, he allegedly disappeared and used his Facebook posts to declare war on Uganda.
Brig Flavia Byekwaso, the UPDF spokesperson, confirmed the arrest of the suspected rebel leader to Sunday Monitor in a telephone interview.
“It is true that our officers from CMI nabbed him in Njeru. When he killed our soldiers, he went back to DR Congo, but CMI continued tracking him until he was arrested,” she said on Saturday.
In August, this newspaper reported that three police officers in Zombo District were expressly charged, tried and found guilty of aiding escape of another rebel suspect, Mr Denis Ogenmungu, of Cooperative for Development of the Congo (CODECO) , a rebel group fighting the DRC government.
In July, at least 20 men disguising as forest workers invaded a UPDF detach in Zombo District, killing two UPDF soldiers and injuring three.
Following a pursuit, the UPDF soldiers killed six of the attackers in the jungles of Lendu forest at the borders of DRCongo. Some of the attackers escaped back to their base in the DR Congo.
