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Will govt find solutions to the Apaa land conflict?
Some of the families in Apaa Village ponder their next move after eviction. The fresh outbreak of violence was initially reported on March 27, involving the brutal murder of two people, including a man only identified as Mwesigwa and a 50-year-old farmer, Mohamed Adui, near the Sinyanya Landing Site in Okusijoni Sub-county
What you need to know:
While presiding over the April 12 Peace Day fete in Yumbe Town, President Museveni revealed that he plans to meet MPs from both Acholi and West Nile sub-region over the long-standing Apaa land conflict.
Suppose President Museveni’s recent promise to meet Acholi and Madi leaders in the coming months comes to pass. In that case, it will total 26, the number of times Acholi leaders have met him to discuss Apaa land tension. Whereas the Madi political and cultural leaders have met President Museveni fewer times compared to their Acholi counterparts, Apaa conflict matters have been tabled on the floor of Parliament at least 34 times between 2017 and to date.
Neither government nor cultural authorities on both the Acholi and Madi sides have official data to validate claims that the number of people killed in the conflict since 2015 is said to be above 200. However, with volatility continuing to shimmer in both tribes, several questions now surround President Museveni’s approaches in solving the conflict that has lasted nearly 14 years.
In the past three weeks, the Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF) have imposed a curfew on the Apaa area twice in an attempt to curb a new wave of deadly clashes between the two tribes over ownership of land. The curfew runs between 7pm and 7am, and anyone found in violation of the new security rule is a candidate of arrest.
The curfew locked down communities in areas of Alok-ki-raa, Gaji, Te-beyo, Weeyoo, and Lutoya where the vast Acholi population resides. Mr Geoffrey Osborn Oceng, the Amuru RDC, said the curfew was one of the eight security measures adopted to curb the rising tension in the disputed area. Mr Peter Taban Data, the Adjumani Resident District Commissioner (RDC), says leaders are to blame for frequent clashes in both Acholiber Village in Itirikwa Sub-county and those in Sinyanya in Okusijoni Sub-county.
The fresh outbreak of violence was initially reported on March 27, involving the brutal murder of two people, including a man only identified as Mwesigwa and a 50-year-old farmer, Mohamed Adui, near the Sinyanya landing site in Okusijoni Sub-county. The Daily Monitor established that the fresh disputes have been triggered by a fight over the ownership of a piece of land measuring approximately 1000 sq/miles, nearly 70km away from Apaa in Itirikwa Sub-county. Mr Martin Oyet, the Amuru District National Resistance Movement (NRM) party administrator, a UPDF officer ranked a major identified as Capt Martin Labeja, allegedly from Acholipii 5th Division headquarters, among others said to be ringleaders, were arrested alongside five others last week by the army after an intelligence report linked them to the incitement of clashes between communities of Acholi and Madi in Apaa.
It is alleged that Mr Oyet and his accomplices mobilised a group of Acholi-speaking locals who crossed from Apaa in Itirkwa Sub-county to Offu Village near the Sinyanya landing site in Okusijoni Sub-county between March 27 and April 3 and attempted to force out of the land pockets of Madi speaking households. The extension of the conflict, reportedly orchestrated by a section of Acholi leaders, to Sinyanya and other areas outside Itirikwa Sub-county where Apaa Parish falls, has pointed to ‘highly connected individuals in government marauding as brokers, forcefully claiming land that is said to neither belong to National Forestry Authority (NFA) nor Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA). “In Offu village, the group led by Charles Okoya, a notorious land broker in Apaa, attempted to displace several families temporarily settled there after they trekked from Apaa.
The claimed land is a piece of land in between that owned by NFA and UWA but belongs to nobody,” Mr William Amanzuru said. Mr Amanzuru, the coordinator of Friends of Zoka, said once the group met resistance and was repelled after asking the families to leave the land, Mr Oyet allegedly mobilised more forces armed with bows, arrows, and machetes to forcefully evict the locals, resulting in several fatalities.
MPs under the West Nile Parliamentary Caucus allege that criminal gangs responsible for attacking the Madi community in Itirikwa and Ukusijoni sub-counties in Adjumani District are being mobilised, armed, and financed by individuals working for the government, and called for an urgent investigation. Ms Jessica Ababiku, the Adjumani District Woman MP, blames the 14-year-old land conflict over the contested Apaa land on persistent government inaction, which she said has resulted in continuous loss of lives, property, and disruption of livelihoods. “So far, we have lost four people, including a UPDF officer. Many are hospitalised in health facilities, families are displaced, and farmers are too scared to return to their gardens, but all these are happening while the army watches,” Ms Ababiku stated.
Mr Geoffrey Feta, the Ayivu East County MP, said even when the alleged land-grabbing perpetrators are known to include security chiefs, and business people, among others, the government has taken the Apaa problem for granted. The UPDF confirmed the arrest of at least 20 suspects relating to the attacks, but said they had zeroed in on six to be the masterminds who mobilised communities on either side to attack each other. In February 2022, the State Minister of Internal Affairs, Gen David Muhoozi, tabled before Parliament the three page report on Apaa, indicating that politicians were deliberately promoting the recurring tribal clashes and killings in Apaa between the Madi and the Acholi communities.
Gen Muhoozi’s report was a success in an investigation by the Joint Security Agencies sanctioned by President Museveni in mid August 2021. The conflict in Apaa has been hijacked by politicians to the disadvantage of the local cultural institutions through which land conflicts have always been resolved. Some leaders have been indicated to be fueling the clashes at all levels from social to political strata, it says. The establishment of the boundary between Adjumani and Amuru in 2017, including the placement of a boundary mark at Omee, the report said, has emboldened the Madi (backed by politicians) to claim full ownership of the contested land.
