Author: Théophile Niyitegeka

{A total of 750 former M23 rebel combatants are missing from Bihanga Military Training School in Ibanda District where they were taken for demobilisation.}

Yesterday, a team military attaches from the United States of America, India, China, Rwanda and Tanzania led by Col Henry Isoke of the Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF) visited the camp and met with the ex-combatants.

It was during this meeting that the disappearance of the combatants was made public.
The news of their disappearance comes at a time when there are reports that the former rebels are planning an attack on the Democratic Republic of Congo government three years after they were defeated by the United Nations Intervention Brigade.

At its peak, M23 controlled North Kivu’s capital Goma but was driven out by the UN and Congolese forces. Since then, the fighters have been scattered in camps in neighbouring Uganda and Rwanda awaiting amnesty.

Now at Bihanga Military Training School, the number of ex-combatants dwindles by the day and their destination is yet to be known.

In December 2013, a total of 1,374 ex-M23 combatants were transferred from Kavera in Kasese district to Bihanga.

Currently, the UPDF can only account for about three hundred of them. At least 19 ex- combatants are admitted at Bombo Military Hospital, while nine are confirmed dead since 2013. Seven of the ex-fighters were said to be on official duty and seven others on leave to see relatives.

Only 391 were at Bihanga Military training school at the time of the visit. One combatant is reportedly in detention for reasons that were withheld.

Reports at the school indicate that 60 combatants escaped from the camp on the 14th of January under the leadership of Lieutenant Colonel Yusufu Mbonyeyezu and another 76 left on the 19th of January under the leadership on Major Mwamba.

Lieutenant Colonel Innocent Rukara, the commander of the M23 ex-combatants told our reporter that they do not know where their colleagues went. Rukara reveals that having spent three years away from their country, some people are home sick and they disappear without any communication.

Arthur Timbaganya, the UPDF 2nd Division spokesperson told URN that the army had also invited diplomats and military attachés to interact with the ex-combatants. Timbaganya further revealed that the UPDF is engaging the international community to ensure that the disagreements between the M23 and the Kinshasa government.

Source:Daily Monitor

{Around 600 Burundian refugees per day crossed into Tanzania in January.}

Refugee camps for Burundians fleeing political violence are overcrowded and need more land to host the hundreds of refugees arriving each day, according to the United Nations.

More than 370,000 refugees have fled Burundi since April 2015, when the country’s president Pierre Nkurunziza announced he was running for a third presidential term. Nkurunziza’s announcement sparked widespread protests and have led to clashes between security forces and anti-government activists.

Almost 500 people have been killed in the violence, which has forced many to leave their homes. Almost 220,000 Burundians have sought refuge in Tanzania, while 85,000 are staying in Rwanda, around 44,000 in Uganda and over 30,000 in Congo, according to the U.N. Refugee Agency (UNHCR).

A UNHCR spokesman, William Spindler, told media in Geneva Tuesday that conditions were deteriorating in camps, which were struggling to deal with the influx of Burundian refugees. Arrivals hit almost 600 refugees per day in Tanzania in January; only one of the three camps hosting refugees is currently taking new arrivals, and it recently passed its capacity of 100,000.

“Without allocation of new land to extend capacity in existing camps or build news ones, these countries will struggle to provide sufficient shelter and life-saving services in the camp sites,” said Spindler.

Burundi has balked at international condemnation of the situation within its borders. The European Union has suspended €432 million ($451 million) in aid to Burundi due to concerns about human rights violations, while the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) chief prosecutor announced she was opening a preliminary investigation into the country in April 2016.

In response, Burundi’s government voted to withdraw from the ICC in October 2016 and Nkurunziza has rejected attempted foreign intervention in the country. His government has consistently accused neighboring Rwanda of training and arming refugees to aid a rebellion in Burundi, which Rwanda has flatly denied.

UNHCR is also appealing for greater financial assistance in tackling the Burundi crisis; in 2016, it received $96.1 million in contributions, which amounted to 53 percent of its required funds.

Source:News Week

{The Uganda Police says that intelligence reports indicate the suspected robbers who were arrested at City Oil petrol station had also planned to rob Equity Bank.}

Two people were injured and two vehicles damaged in a shootout between Police and suspected robbers at City Oil petrol station in Kamwokya on Thursday afternoon. The police officers were reportedly trailing the armed robbers in a numberless Toyota Noah vehicle following intelligence reports.

Emilian Kayima, the Police spokesperson for Kampala Metropolitan area says, when the six suspected robbers saw that they were being monitored at City Oil, they opened fire forcing police to retaliate shooting one of the suspects in the leg. Police has arrested all the suspects after they were forced to surrender.
Kayima says the police will work together with the management of the two places that were being targeted to ensure that nothing wrong happens.

Police has identified the suspects as Tonny Nume, Douglas Kintu a 27-year-old vendor in Kampala, Nicholas Ogwal 45 a resident of Nakawa, and Francis Baguma a shoes vendor. Others are Robert Okello a boda boda cyclist, and Frank Lukwago a resident of Nansana. They are all being questioned before they can be taken to court.

Kayima stated that the police intelligence on the robbery was successful urging people to give police details of anything suspicious. He called upon young people to work hard instead of getting into robbery.

Kayima also stated that only one AK47 rifle was recovered, contrary to earlier reports that two rifles and two pistols were recovered from the crime scene. Police sources say they are still conducting further investigations and details of what was being carried in the vehicle are yet to be got.

Charles Oshel, a security guard at Security Group Uganda told journalists that he was tipped by a friend from CID that robbers would come to city oil. He says they were prepared in case of anything, but the support by police is what saved them from the robbers.

{When the long-awaited formalisation of Swakopmund’s DRC informal settlement started in 2013, residents feared they would be removed from their little pieces of land, just for someone wealthier to eventually snatch these from them.}

The fears were used for political campaigning between the three major parties: Swapo, RDP and DTA, all vying for the approximately 10 000 strong community’s votes – promising them that if they are voted into power, they would bring services and affordable housing to the people, unlike the alleged broken promises from the previous local authorities and governments.

The emotions of the community were whipped up, and regular protests even led to clashes between DRC residents and the police on the Swakopmund municipal premises – this regardless of numerous attempts of reassurances from the municipality that the fears and claims were unfounded.

Today, nearly four years later, the formalisation process is continuing and by next year, the 1 350 erven in the ‘old’ DRC will have water, sewerage and electricity; ‘luxuries’ that have been absent since the DRC was established in 2000. And the irony of the matter is that every household remained where they settled from the start without being moved.

“If there was any moving to be done, it was a little to the left or right, just to get out of the way for the contractors to install the pipes,” said DRC community activist and Swapo branch leader Ambrosius Marsh.

“It was not all gloom and doom as was speculated, but we believe that the voice of the people of the DRC was heard, and that is why everything turned out positive,” he told The Namibian.

Tractors and workmen are seen at various locations inside the DRC, where deep trenches are being dug or filled right next to shacks. In the trenches, pipelines for water and sewerage are being laid.

Residents, to date, have to get their water from pay-points, while toilet facilities are deplorable, many residents opting to resort to the surrounding desert environment.

Electricity will also be connected soon, where to date residents depend on wood, gas and paraffin for cooking, light and heat.

Residents to whom The Namibian spoke last week admitted that they were scared of the formalisation.

“We have been waiting for services since 2000, but then it was rumoured that we could lose our erven, and that we’d be moved to the dumpsite,” one man said.

“We are very happy to see what is happening here. Soon, we will live normally like everyone else,” said a woman near a construction site.

There are new sections to the DRC which do not form part of the ‘old’ informal settlement, and therefore do not fall under the formalisation process – yet. These squatters, numbering in the thousands, also demand services. But according to municipal officials, residents there also have to follow the correct procedures, such as first registering as Swakopmund residents.

According to the general manager for community development services at the Swakopmund municipality, Mike Iipinge, these people have occupied municipal land without permission from the municipality, consequently erecting illegal structures on the land.

They have been requested on several occasions to move from the land and demolish and remove their shacks, or face forced removal.

Many in the ‘old’ DRC told The Namibian that those squatting have heard about the formalisation taking place, and therefore hope to get cheap land.

“There are many who are not even from Swakopmund and who already have property elsewhere. Now, they come and take a piece of land and rent out the shack, hoping that eventually they will get the land. That will not work,” one resident said. “They must be from Swakopmund, and they must follow the right procedures and wait for their turn, just like we did.”

According to Marsh, the DRC is going to have a “big party” once the formalisation is completed and people are allocated their erven.

Source:Namibian

{Police in Manyara region has arrested an Immigration Officer, Juma Fakhi, who has been on their wanted list over alleged forgery of working and residential permits.}

The suspect is accused of providing forged documents, working and residential permits, to a number of foreigners, including nine aliens from a hunting concession whom the police arrested recently in Manyara Region.

Police in Arusha Region have been hunting for the suspect who used to work at Arusha Station before he was transferred to Manyara where he served at the Manyara Regional Immigration Office. He is now being questioned at the Arusha Central Police Station over his alleged assistance to the illegal aliens.

Among the foreigners who were recently found staying and working in the country illegally with forged documents include the Director of Tanzania Game Trackers (TGT), Michael Allard, a French national.

Allard together with nine other suspects working for the hunting establishment, were arrested here last week, charged with illegal staying and working in the country. TGT is a hunting concession operating at Ngaramtoniya- Chini section of Arumeru District, in Arusha Region.

The Arusha Regional Labour Department Officer, Mr Yusuph Nzugille, recently confirmed the arrest of nine foreigners whom he named as Hendrikus Van der Goot from Netherlands, Cliff Durell Hunter, from South Africa, Nana Grosse Woodley from Germany, Nicolas Carel Stubbs, also South African and Andrea Theresa Hartmann from Germany.

The suspects had illegally forged relevant residential and working permits to stay, live and conduct their daily operations in the country since 2015, but now the labour office here is combing the entire area, smoking out aliens. Others who fell in the same trap include Priya Shah from the United Kingdom, Chinnadurai Vellaichamy from India and Wesley Khamasi Guyavi from Kenya.

Their illegal stay, according to officials here, has subjected the nation to loss of millions. According to Mr Nzugille, the Labour Department here was prompted to act in line with new regulations that stipulate that, all working permits should be issued by the commission of works under the Ministry of Labor, leaving the Immigration Department to deal with residential permits only.

“We had initially arrested 13 suspects but after probing, four others were released and now the remaining nine need to be investigated further,” said the Labor Officer.

The attorney representing the accused, Mr Wilfred Mawalla, defended his clients as innocent, saying they had no way of knowing that the documents were fake because they were prepared by a government official. The Deputy Commissioner for Immigration in Arusha region Mr Vitalis Mlay has confirmed the arrest of the immigration officer.

Source:Daily News