Government sends choppers, military equipment as plans to disarm bandits in Karamoja shape up

The government has dispatched helicopters to the Karamoja region to handle security operations in the area as a forceful disarmament program takes shape, sources have said.

The choppers, two of which have been sighted in deployment come a week after the army deployed extra men and even moved a series of military equipment to Karamoja in preparation of the same.

It should be noted that last month, President Museveni summoned security chiefs to a meeting where he demanded that they devise strategic means to quell the rising insecurity in the Karamoja sub-region.

The meeting itself was a follow-up on a fact-finding meeting from Museveni’s visit to the region where he was briefed of the rising attacks on people and their livestock by youth who have acquired guns and being used to launch revenge attacks.

Museveni said the meeting for the top security commanders will decide the final solution to deal with the remerging cattle raids in Karamoja that he said were sparked off by a Karamajong warrior named Acucu who was recently released from prison after serving 10 years.

On returning, Acucu found his wives married to other men and all his cattle gone.

During Museveni’s three-day stay in Karamoja, he was informed that Acucu who is currently roaming the Jie and Turkana of Kenya was not helped by Police and the local leaders to recover his animals after return from prison.

He consequently mobilized criminal gangs and attacked and raided cattle from the Dodoth resulting in counter raids by the Dodoth that has leftover 400 people dead in two years.

“The Dodoth rejected peace talks with the Jie and have vowed to harm them. They just want revenge. This cycle must be broken peacefully,” Museveni said.