One shot dead, two injured as government forcefully starts evicting Apaa residents
ADJUAMANI/AMURU.
One person has been shot dead while two others sustained serious injuries following a forceful eviction conducted by the Uganda People’s Defence Forces soldiers (UPDF) in the contested Apaa land in Itirikwa Sub County Adjumani District.
The Friday evening incident follows an eviction order issued by the Uganda Wildlife Authority and National Forestry Authority demanding 15,000 residents occupying the area vacate or be thrown out forcefully.
Both NFA and UWA allege the residents are illegally settled in the Zoka central Forest Reserve and East Madi wildlife Game reserve respectively.
Local leaders have identified the deceased as Python Okello 26, while one of the injured was only identified as Okello, all residents of Acholi ber in Labala parish.
Mr Patrick Okwonga, the deceased uncle told Daily Monitor in an interview on Saturday that his son was shot by people who were putting on UPDF uniforms.
He said the deceased was shot at about 4: 00pm while fleeing from UPDF soldiers who were the commanding eviction in the area.
"The soldiers came in the morning (Friday 23rd) and begun setting ablaze houses belonging to locals while telling people to vacate the area. When they reached my son's residence, they used live bullets at a group that were fleeing away," Mr Okwonga said.
He alleges that a total of 62 huts have been set ablaze by those carrying out the eviction exercise since March 16.
"We are living in great fear at the moment, our properties and food crops have been destroyed in the eviction operations. We want government to consider us as human beings, we have suffered enough," Mr Okwonga said.
