Youth from Moyo District armed with bows and arrows, prepare to attack their counterparts in Yumbe District over land disputes in 2012. FILE PHOTO

YUMBE/MOYO- A meeting organised in Yumbe District on Tuesday by the State minister for Local Government, Ms Jennifer Namuyangu, to resolve a 13-year border conflict between Yumbe and Moyo districts flopped after Moyo District leaders did not attend, calling for a neutral ground to conduct the mediation talks.

Ms Namuyangu on Tuesday called upon residents of the two districts to resolve their differences amicably.
“I don’t know how the confusion came about because for a longtime Kali has been part of Yumbe but of recent some people say it belongs to Moyo. We shall sit again with the leaders of the two districts, including the ministry of Lands and if it means doing boundary marking, we shall come and do that,” the minister said.

In 2012, the dispute over Kali area led to bloody clashes between residents of the two districts.
The conflict disrupted vaccination and election exercises in the areas. In 2014 some officials conducting the national census exercise in the disputed areas were assaulted, disrupting the exercise.

Following the failure of the Tuesday arbitration meeting in Yumbe District, Ms Namuyangu later held two separate meetings with leaders of the warring parties in their respective districts.

Ms Farida Charity, the Yumbe District speaker, said: “I wonder why the leaders of Moyo boycotted the meeting because as the people of Yumbe, we don’t agitate for conflicts and war. We don’t have any problem with Moyo and if the next meeting venue will be in Moyo we shall go.”

While meeting Ms Namuyangu separately in Moyo District, Mr Sam Asusi, the Moyo secretary for security and refugees affairs, proposed Adjumani District as a neutral ground for holding the mediation meeting.