Two Fishermen from Lake Edward in Bwambara Sub County, Rukungiri district have been found dead. It is suspected that these were killed by soldiers from the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The deceased have been identified as Moses Sunday, 22, a resident of Rumira village and Innocent Namanya, 26, a resident of Kyehunde village in Rukungiri District. The duo has been operating from the Rweshama Landing Site in Bwambara Sub County.
It is alleged that the duo who were workers of Aisha Mugenyi, a fish dealer at the same landing site sailed on the lake on July 4, 2024, at around 02:00 a.m. together with a group of others namely; Atwibu Mwesigwa, Mukasa Rajabu Midedo and Apollo Byaruhanga to carry out fishing.
The group crossed the Ugandan border up to the Kagezi area in North Kivu province, in the Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.
But on July 11, 2024, at around 10:30 a.m. as they were preparing hooks to continue fishing, Mwesigwa saw DRC soldiers approaching and sounded an alarm so that his fellows would run back to the Ugandan side. They started shooting at them as they were running away.
By the time, they sailed back up to the Rweshama landing site, Namanya and Sunday were missing. Mwesigwa says that after reporting to their boss, they opened a case of missing persons at Rweshama police station and later mobilized and went back to Kagezi, and started looking for them until July 15, 2024, when they were found floating on waters in the Kagezi area.
Kigezi Region Police Spokesperson Elly Maate says that the police have already recorded statements from the surviving fishermen and conducted a postmortem of the deceased to help in investigations.
Security on the Congolese side of Lake Edward is shaky due to the occupation of part of its southwestern side (Vitshumbi) conquered by the M23 rebels.
This is not the first time fishermen from the Ugandan side have been killed by suspected armed men while fishing on the same lake. In December 2020, Benjamin Tusasibwe from Kabale district and Kenneth Kabasharira alias Kamunyamure, a resident of Rweshama in Bwambara sub-county, Rukungiri district were arrested, taken to Kasindi and later killed by security operatives.
In July 2018, 12 fishermen were killed after the Ugandan navy and the DR Congo navy exchanged gunfire while on the same lake.
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