A mixed bag for conflict-prone West Nile

Arua Diocese Bishop Sabino Ocan Odoki (R) and other guests attend celebrations to mark 100 years of West Nile recently. PHOTO BY FELIX WAROM OKELLO.

What you need to know:

The events in West Nile have been punctuated by a number of conflicts. However, the highlight of the year has been celebrations to mark 100 years of West Nile. Daily Monitor’s Felix Warom Okello & Clement Aluma take you through the lows and the highs of 2014.

The year 2014 was of historical reflection for West Nile as the region marked 100 years since it became part of Uganda.
As residents in the region sounded drums in celebration, gunfire rocked neighbouring South Sudan resulting into an influx of refugees who exerted pressure on the scanty resources.

Before the guns could go silent, the came the census with its resultant border dispute with South Sudan and the unease among the clergy at Arua Diocese. Nonetheless, it was also a year of hope.
Influx of refugees
In January, Adjumani and Arua districts experienced an influx of South Sudan refugees many of whom had been repatriated back to the country after a brief break from more than 25 years of war. Many of the South Sudanese who had fled had returned following the country’s independence form the mostly Muslim north.

However, in December 2013, forces loyal to former vice president and President Salva Kiir opened the wounds killing a number of people and forcing many to flee for safety.

Majority fled to Uganda with Adjumani District currently hosting more than 25,000 refugees from South Sudan. About 23 agencies are providing medical, safe water and sanitation to the refugees.
Religious conflicts
The conflicts in Arua Diocese spilled over to 2014 Bishop Sabino Ocan Odoki suspending a number of priests on allegations of disobedience.

This has caused a lot of chaos in the region with some parishes failing to get priests and halting the renovation of Arua Cathedral.

Bishop Odoki had been accused of financial mismanagement but he maintains that all the allegations are unfounded.
While ordaining priests in June state minister for Local Government, Mr Alex Onzima, warned all those attacking priests, saying: “Should any person in whatever position you hold continue to character assassinate a bishop or any other priest, I as an individual, will apply the law and you will be prosecuted.”

At the same function, Bishop Odoki called for discipline, saying: “There has been a lot of indiscipline. Follow the way of Christ but if you choose the way of Judas, you know how he ended, he went and hanged himself. So be disciplined.”

Electricity woes
Although West Nile generates some power for the rest of the country, the region has been without sufficient extension of power for decades.
For most of independent Uganda, urban West Nile has relied on thermal power to run electrical machines and light up the night. But majority of the people in the region rely on generators, solar, candles and lamps as sources of power.

However, the region is making use of solar energy to light homes, health centres and for commercial activities including phone charging and powering videos halls among others.

Currently, West Nile Rural Electrification programme is extending power to Pakwach, Akworo, Parombo, Warr, Nyapea to Logiri but focus is put on solar energy as the main source of energy.

Health sector
The heavily dilapidated Nebbi and Moyo hospitals have been included among the projects that will be worked on in a renovation drive funded by government.
The project will also include the construction of new wards that would help to decongest the two major hospitals in the region. The two hospitals, which were constructed during the Obote reign, have not had a coat of paint for several years with ceilings falling off, sewers breaking down and water systems becoming completely non-functional.

Border disputes
On September 4, suspected SPLA abducted the Moyo District chairman, Mr Jimmy Vukoni and 11 other people as they conducted the census in a disputed village in Wano in Moyo Sub-county.

They were detained at Mere Police Station in Kajo-Keji County, South Sudan.
The aftermath of the arrest saw demonstration, burning of houses and deaths of six people forcing South Sudanese to flee Moyo Town.

The conflict stems from a long-standing border dispute with both South Sudan and Uganda over ownership of the land.

The South Sudanese claim they settled in Wano after fleeing from the Anya Nya (the Madi term for ‘snake/scorpion venom’) war that were a group of separatist rebels formed by Joseph Lagu in 1963 as the military wing of the Southern Sudan Resistance Movement (SSRM).

The SSRM had been openly fighting against the Muslim dominated north Sudan since independence in 1955. They had fought in the First Sudanese Civil War from 1963 until 1972. After the war, some of them returned and while others stayed.

Even at the height of the war between Khartoum and the SPLA South Sudanese had used part of the disputed land as their base to launch attacks.

Similarly, Yumbe, Arua and Moyo districts continue to be embroiled in border dispute over ownership of Ewanga [on Yumbe side] and Kali [on the Moyo side].
Another potential point of border dispute is the opening in July of about four acres by the Congolese authorities for the establishment of a parkyard at Vurra in Arua District.

The Congolese spokesperson for Aru Territory, Mr Corneille Aluma, said they would clear the land for a parking yard as well as building administrative units customs.

WEST NILE CELEBRATES 100 YEARS

West Nile marked 100 years in April. The events that followed reflected on the region’s past, present and future with a call to make Arua a city.

Several speakers highlighted the need for a functional education system supported by a fully-fledged university [Muni which is now functioning], stable electricity, provision of safe and clean water and the need for a rebellion-free region.

Revival of cooperatives, repairing the railway line from Pakwach to Juba and upgrading of Arua airfield also featured among the litany of requests.
Other requests included working on the undersea cable for internet connectivity and developing the region’s tourism sites.
The West Nile was part of the “Lado Enclave” named after the River Port of Lado located in the South Sudan.
The enclave which consisted of parts of northern Uganda and South eastern Sudan was part of the Congo Free State until 1910 when it reverted to Anglo-Egyptian control, as agreed in the Anglo-German Treaty of 1890.

According to the Anglo-German Treaty of 1890, Belgian King Leopold’s hold on to the territory would lapse at the end of his reign. Another treaty, the Anglo-Congo Agreement signed on August 14, 1894, gave the Lado Enclave to King Leopold II on lease until his death in 1910.

SWINE FEVER

Knock down on farming. A number of farmers, mostly pork dealers early this year had a knock down effect after the districts of Moyo and Adjumani were attacked by African Swine Fever, which killed 2, 479 pigs. The outbreak set in motion quarantine on movement and sale of pigs, which left pork dealers counting losses.

Mr Patrick Andi, a pork dealer at Awindiri Trading Centre in Adjumani Town Council told Daily Monitor he had from his recollection lost an estimated Shs10m this year.

He has since put his focus to Nimule in South Sudan although business is also slow there.