Two kidnapped UPDF soldiers released

The two UPDF soldiers that were allegedly kidnapped by the Congolese forces on Monday afternoon while in the Busigi border market in Kisoro District were Thursday handed over to the Ugandan authorities at the Busanza border point in Kisoro.

The Kisoro Resident District Commissioner, Hajj Shafiq Ssekandi, who doubles as the chairman of the district security committee identified the released UPDF soldiers as Pvt Joseph Okello and Pvt Michael Kwemoi attached to the Busanza UPDF detach under the 35 battalion that is based in Kisoro District.

The local residents from the Busigi reported the kidnap of the UPDF soldiers to the local leaders who later informed security authorities.

“We are happy that our kidnapped soldiers have been handed over back to us. I thank the Congolese government officials for this brotherly gesture,” Hajji Ssekandi said.

Before their release, the UPDF spokesperson Brig Gen Felix Kulayigye on Thursday morning said that they were in touch with the Congolese government officials over the matter and they had promised to release them on Wednesday which they did not fulfil.

“We have evidence and witnesses that the two UPDF soldiers were kidnapped by the Congolese forces that claimed that they were on their territory, but not, because the kidnapped soldiers were in the border market. We are in touch with the Congolese authorities in the area and we expect them to be released soon. They had promised to release them on Wednesday but this was not done and we are waiting,” he said.

The victims were dressed in civilian clothes at the time of the incident and they were not armed.

Hajj Ssekandi said that the victims have always been on the far front of fighting the smuggling of illegal items into either country by Congolese traders and he suspects that the move to kidnap them was a form of revenge. 

Local leaders in the Kisoro District wondered why the Congolese forces acted in such an inhuman manner yet Uganda has been hosting their nationals every time there is an armed conflict in the country.

“In case of any misconduct, the Congolese forces should have alerted the UPDF authorities to initiate a disciplinary action against the victims instead of kidnapping them,” the LCIII chairman for Nyarubuye Sub County, Mr Elnest Ndibyariye, said.

Meanwhile, 66 Congolese individuals from 34 households in the Democratic Republic of Congo were on Tuesday received at Nyakabande refugee Transit Center after they entered Uganda through the Bunagana border making the cumulative number of asylum seekers manually registered from March 28 to 53,716.