In a hidden corner of Kisoro’s slow Bunagana border town, Uganda Police officers walked quietly looking for smuggled goods. What they found instead was a catalog of weapons, a clue to something bigger.
Ely Maate, the Kigezi Region Police spokesperson, says they on Friday impounded six sub machine guns and a PK Machine Gun but could not divulged details about the arrests and stage of investigations.
Officers intercepted the guns as they were being loaded on a Premio vehicle registration number UAS 978B by officers on night patrol.
The discovery of the seven guns according to Kisoro Resident District Commissioner, Hajji Shafique Ssekandi was a big hit to how the recent murders in the border district have been facilitated.
Mr Ssekandi says the officers became suspicious when they saw the vehicle being loaded in a dark and hidden place.
The purchase would merely have been the most spectacular example of how Kisoro district has become a magnet for arms traffickers and a place of vanishing weapons stockpiles and uncontrolled gun markets since the opening of Uganda’s borders to thousands of M23 ex-combatants.
Kisoro District is currently battling an escalation of gun related crimes and aggravated robberies with over ten killings in the past few months recorded.
READ: M23 rebels regroup, executing Ugandans – Kisoro leaders
RELATED: Panic as rebels takeover UPDF uniforms
By Moses Mugalu