DRC DETAINS ONE UGANDAN COP AS BODIES OF DEAD COLLEAGUES ARE BROUGHT HOME

Rwenzori Regional Police Commander, Mr Denis Namuwoza, confirmed that Cpl Obara was alive. File photo 

 

 By ANDREW BAGALA

KAMPALA. A Ugandan police officer who was believed to have been killed with three others during an ambush by Democratic Republic of Congo soldiers on Lake Albert is alive.
Cpl Biral Obara is still in detention in DRC, but would be released today.

Rwenzori Regional Police Commander, Mr Denis Namuwoza, confirmed that Cpl Obara was alive.
“We expect to return with him tomorrow (Friday),” Mr Namuwoza said Thursday.
Last Saturday, four police officers; Sgt Faruk Waiswa, Cpl Biral Obara, Constable Moses Ochen and Constable Bernard Isingoma, were ambushed by Congolese soldiers and shot at as they responded to an illegal fishing incident on Lake Albert in Uganda’s waters.
Sgt Waiswa, Constable Ochen and Constable Isingoma died on spot while Cpl Obara was captured alive and taken to DRC side. The photographs taken after the raid showed that he was injured and covered with blood.

His narration will help Ugandan investigators to understand the last moment of the deceased officers.
After the Saturday ambush, rifles and Uganda police boat were seized by the assailants. The bodies of Uganda police officers were taken to Bunia General Hospital in Eastern DRC.

The three bodies were reportedly in bad state which prompted Uganda to send four doctors to Bunia to treat them before transporting them to Kampala, Uganda.

Mr Namuwoza said the DRC officials have accepted to hand over all other property that had been seized during the raid.
Return of all property was one of the four demands Uganda issued to their Congolese counterparts in a protest note.
By press time, the DRC had not yet responded to Uganda’s protest note.
Uganda government threatened to use military force against DRC soldiers if attacks on its citizens ever re-occurs on Ugandan soil. 

CREDIT: MONITOR