Inside plan to resolve Uganda-S. Sudan border row in Lamwo

An inter-ministerial committee comprising Uganda and South Sudan officials has been set up to expedite the demarcation process of the highly contested boundary between the two countries in Lamwo District.

In August, eight Ugandans were reportedly killed by armed South Sudanese from Magwi County in a deadly clash between communities from the two countries over a piece of land in a remote village between Lokung and Nyimur sub-counties in Lamwo District. 

But a fortnight ago, Mr Geoffrey Osborn Oceng, the Lamwo RDC, told a joint delegation meeting between the two countries at Ikwoto County headquarters in Eastern Equatorial State that a committee had been set up to handle the matter. 

“In our last meeting, we resolved that the central government fast-tracks the border demarcation and I am happy that three weeks ago, the State Minister for Veterans Affairs, Ms Huda Oleru, was in South Sudan to meet President Salva Kiir,” he said during an interview on Tuesday.

“And the two presidents have set up an inter-ministerial committee to handle the border problem,” he added.

According to Mr Oceng, two months ago, the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Finance, Mr Ramathan Ggoobi, said the government is ready to construct roads in South Sudan following a recommendation by the Lamwo District security committee.

Several roads such as Owinykibul-Palabek, Ngomoromo-Poge-Magwi, Awenolwiyo-Palw and Lubone-Madiopei need to be worked on to boost trade and security between the countries, he said.

At the meeting, South Sudan leaders accused Uganda of blocking their goods from being taken to markets and that several communities were being blocked from using their land.

Local leaders speak out

Mr Gabriel Ayam, a local leader in Ikwoto Town, said: “The first challenge we get from the Uganda side is the restrictions, for instance, the Uganda government block us from going to sell our goods there and we are blocked by the UPDF soldiers from accessing fertile farming corridors in the hills.”

“While we have been coordinating well towards the roadmap, movement permits have been restricted to only three months by Ugandan authorities and most of our brothers who are on that side face a lot of difficulties in doing business since every time you must keep renewing them,” he added.

At the meeting, Mr David Kasisi Ochan, the Lamwo District councillor, decried delays in the boundary opening.

“There is a need for engagement of our communities from the village, parish, Sub County and district up to parliamentary level. Our people are fighting among themselves over the boundary, we don’t know exactly where the boundary is,” Mr Ochan said

He also implored the two countries to declare the right boundary and demarcate it with signs to end killings, intimidations and cattle rustling conducted by armed raiders from South Sudan.

“Unless we bring out the causes of the border killings, we will not solve the problem, the fights between communities in Magwi (South Sudan) and the Ugandans in Lokung in Uganda are because of wrangles over land, and the wrangles are between two clans that are trying to make it appear as if it is a fight between two countries,” the councillor said.

Mr Oceng also warned communities on both sides against attacking each other and assuming ownership of the boundaries.

“A lot of people have the border lines in their minds, which in reality is not true, and that is why I keep emphasising that let us stop talking about the border line because it is not your work, and I will keep reminding you that the issue of border demarcation is not your work,” he said.

“Let us not begin to incite the communities to do wrong things, let us live in peace, and those issues will be addressed by President (Museveni) and his brother Salva Kiir,” he added. 

Mr Nicholas Odwar, an official with the South Sudan Relief Rehabilitation Programme, said the two countries need to work on a swift way to improve their relations and security by upgrading their infrastructure, including roads.

“We have to improve the roads because I have seen some businessmen coming from Uganda with heavy vehicles but the roads are in a sorry state and they cannot navigate through Ikwoto to Torit and other states; if the roads are improved, things will go well, including security patrols,” he said.

“We also have the issue of returnees in Uganda, so these ones sometimes meet difficulties in reaching the camps because the roads are very bad, even the volunteering organisations helping them face challenges in accessing such places because of the rotten road network,” Mr Odwar added.

However, Mr Timon Loboi Lolori, the commissioner of Ikwoto County, reiterated the South Sudanese government’s commitment to end conflicts and killing of Ugandans due to the border conflict.

“We have recently committed to ending all this violence and improving relations with Uganda, for example, livestock raided from Lamwo District last week were recovered in Ramalu and someone is keeping them before we hand them back,” he said.

“It is only the compensation of those who were killed that we have successfully done and apprehended the wrongdoers. Since I came into office, there have been no raids, and I won’t give them room to loiter and disturb the security of the county and the neighbouring Uganda,” he added.

While he confirmed the establishment of the ministerial committee to reopen the borderline, Mr Loboi implored the Ugandan authorities to help them weed out bandits of South Sudanese origin that he said are hiding in Uganda (along the border) and collaborating with rustlers to steal animals.

“I had agents in all spots to identify the wrongdoers who are inciting and mobilising the public to go for raids in Uganda. We found that they had middlemen who linked them to robberies, and we have apprehended a good number of them,” he said.

Parliament concerned

In May, Ugandan legislators asked the government to demarcate all borders under dispute following increased clashes among the communities living there. They cited the Kukur of South Sudan, the Madi of Uganda (Moyo) and the Aringa (Yumbe)  who have been embroiled in border conflicts, resulting in massive displacement of people.

Parliament also established that separate border clashes in Gwere West, Moyo District, escalated when a group of South Sudanese attacked Goboro Parish Centre, Linyamiro and Feya, among other areas. This provoked a retaliation from the Ugandans who attacked the Kukur tribe, also in Gwere West, leading to more than 100 cows being driven away towards Yumbe.

The majority of homes attacked and torched by the South Sudanese belonged to the Aringa of Yumbe, the Kakwa of Koboko, and the people of Maracha and Terego who are settled near the border.

In July, State Minister for Defence and Veteran Affairs Jacob Oboth-Oboth told Parliament that the two countries were addressing the insecurity in Lamwo District. This came after several locals were killed and 270 head of cattle lost to raiders from across the border. The five locals (members from same family) were attacked on July 10 in their gardens in Obworo hills, Lelabul East Village in Lokung East Sub-county.

Mr Oboth noted that the UPDF was working closely with local security forces to collect timely intelligence information and to deploy on the borders.

Looking back

In the past, Ugandan and South Sudanese military leaders secured the South Sudan-Uganda border together.   Since South Sudan became independent in 2011, there have been tensions caused by regular border disputes with Uganda, with both countries accusing each other of encroaching on each other’s territory. 

President Museveni and his South Sudan counterpar Salva Kiir met in Moyo District and agreed that both Ugandan and South Sudanese farmers could do farming on the vast chunks of land on the borderline without any party claiming its ownership until the boundary between the two countries is redefined.

However, later in 2014, a bloody conflict arising from a shared borderline broke out between the two countries, claiming more than 20 lives.

The former South Sudan Chief of Defence Forces, Gen Johnson Juma Okot, led a high-profile delegation to meet their UPDF counterparts in Gulu City in November 2020.  

The meeting was meant to settle the series of clashes between the two forces at their common borderlines, cause reconciliation and derive a way forward to peaceful coexistence. In 2020 alone, nearly 10 South Sudanese soldiers were killed in clashes between security forces of the two countries.

Early this month, both Uganda and South Sudan governments formed a joint technical committee to resolve border tensions between the two neighbours by demarcating boundaries.

Uganda hosted some 950,000 South Sudanese refugees as of September 30, 2023.