Three UPDF soldiers killed by mob in Arua
- Written by URN
Three UPDF soldiers attached to Vurra customs army detach have been killed by a mob on allegations of armed robbery.
The incident occurred on Saturday night between 9.30pm and 10.30pm at Pelele village, along the Uganda-DRC border in Arua district.
Police in Arua identified the dead soldiers as Corporal Julius Kobum; the Vurra customs detach commander, Lance Corporal Ibrahim Isingoma and Private Peter Ola.
The three were reportedly intercepted by a mob after a cyclist sounded an alarm indicating that they had plotted to rob him.
Josephine Angucia, the police spokesperson for West Nile said that it is still not clear, what the soldiers were doing eight kilometres away from the detach. She says the bodies of the UPDF soldiers were taken to Arua regional referral hospital for postmortem.
According to Anguncia the three deceased officers were each carrying an SMG rifles with 30 rounds of ammunition each. All these were recovered from the scene. Eight people were arrested and detained at Arua CPS to help with investigations.
According to some sources, the soldiers underestimated the reaction of the locals who surrounded them and handed over their guns to the angry mob who later clobbered them to death.
The police say Pelele village where the road connecting Arua to Paidha via Logiri passes along the border between Uganda and DR Congo has been known for armed robbery.
Comments
If in the dark (9:30pm), barehanded civilians can disarm 3 UPDF soldiers, and each carrying fully loaded AK47, then Mr. M7 and country must be afraid.
I don't understand how a soldier hands over his gun with such gullibility to an angry mob?
Raise a soldiers pay, house him well, train him constantly with values and other soldiering skills and you will have a true fighting and thinking machine.
The army is the only security institution that we thought we could trust and yet they too are imploding.
These soldiers were already known robbers to the community here, it was only a matter of time that this would happen.
Sad but should serve as a warning to the others remaining and are known robbers.
No soldier hands over a gun to a civilian -- well, a UPDF soldier can hand over a gun, three times in this case.
With 90 rounds unspent!
The locals can't expect the Government to do anything knowing the Government cannot pay their employee soldiers etc.