South Sudan and Uganda police chiefs on Friday signed a memorandum of understanding aimed at eliminating crime along the Kampala-Juba highway.
Uganda’s Inspector General of Police, Lieutenant General Kale Kayihura together with a delegation of police directors, met the South Sudan team led by their police chief Gen. Acuil Tito Madut, at the police headquarters in Kampala.
The development comes after the Ugandan businessmen went on strike to protest against harassment and torture subjected to them in South Sudan. The traders asked Uganda’s Inspector General of Police, Lieutenant General Kale Kayihura, to intervene.
The affected Ugandans included bus operators, truck drivers and members of the business community. They claimed that the situation had become unbearable and could only be tackled by the presidents of both countries.
In the memorandum, the two police bodies have agreed to patrol the highway occasionally on top of removing all road blocks along the road as a quick intervention to the crisis. Operational centers are also to be established along the highway to address increased insecurity.
To this effect, the South Sudan government has donated two equipped security land cruisers to help Ugandan police patrol the Gulu highway to Elegu at the two countries’ border, a stretch of about 128 kilometers.
General Madut, however, defended his countrymen saying most of the attacks in South Sudan are master-minded by Ugandans who are envious of their fellow businessmen in the country. He says most criminals take advantage of South Sudan being a new nation to commit crime. He added that human rights are for every human being in South Sudan and not the citizens only.
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The two police bodies will conduct occasional three-month reviews to check on the implementation of the memorandum of understanding.
Together with the memorandum, the two police chiefs have agreed to carry out joint capacity building programmes to improve the policing of South Sudan which has become a hub for criminals in the region.
