TWO SHOT DEAD IN UPDF SHOOTOUT AT POLICE PATROL IN KASESE

Two crime preventers helping the police in security patrols were on Saturday night gunned down in a UPDF ambush in Ihandiro sub-county, Kasese district.

A survivor of the attack Mr. Fanahasi Bwambale says they heard someone open fire at them as they were planning the next route after stopping at the bridge on Mpondwe River which separates Ihandiro and Bwera sub-counties. The incident happened at about 11pm.

“We had reached the bride in Kasika and because it is the border of our sub-county (Ihandiro) with Bwera, we needed to go back but with a different route, someone emerged from the bush and shot at us. We all took cover only to find out that the two people had been shot and the attackers took off”. Mr. Bwambale said on phone from Ihandiro.

Joint night patrols between the police and the crime preventers have been intensified in all sub-counties of Bukonzo West since the area near the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo has been rocked by series of armed attacks that have claimed lives of business people.

The Deputy Police Spokesperson Patrick Onyango who is in Kasese confirmed the incident adding that the two crime preventers who were in a patrol with police officers from Ihandiro police post were shot dead by UPDF officers.

He identified the dead as Kambasu Bukera and Gondwin Kabalegha all crime preventers hailing from Kihoko village in Ihandiro sub-county.

“It is true our police officers and crime preventers were shot at leaving two of them dead. This was unfortunate because they were short by UPDF soldiers who were guarding construction materials at the bridge”. Mr. Onyango said.

He said the cause of the attack on sister forces misinformation between the UPDF and the police regarding security at the bridge that is being reconstructed by the UPDF engineering team following the promised by the army during Tarehe sita celebrations in Kasese last year to work on infrastructure in areas affected by the ADF insurgence over 10 years ago.

Mr. Onyango said that police received the information of the UPDF deployment late when the patrol had left Ihandiro police post it was impossible to alert them because the area suffers mobile phone network challenges.

Soldiers arrested.

Mr. Onyango said all the soldiers who were on guard have been detained as investigations continue and have been charged with murder by shooting.