Faridah N Kulumba
Africa-Press – Uganda. At the beginning of this month, the government of South Sudan petitioned the African Union (AU) to intervene in the matter of their 42 territories that have been identified to have been encroached on by Uganda and Kenya.
The issue was brought up by the legislators representing the Eastern Equatorial state at the national parliament who reported that Kenya and Uganda have trespassed areas in South Sudan.
According to the statement made by the acting minister of foreign affairs and international cooperation Deng Dau, South Sudan raised concern about many of its territories being stolen. Although they had talks with Kenya over this issue they still want the AU intervention.
South Sudan and Kenya land theft issue
The South Sudanese legislator’s report revealed that the plan to annex part of South Sudan to Kenya started at the beginning of this year on 27th January following a meeting between Kenya’s Cabinet Secretary and the governor of Turkana county.
According to South Sudan, the Kenyan government’s act of claiming ownership of Nakodok is depriving South Sudanese who are living in that area of access to their traditional water points and grazing land.
Previously the President of South Sudan sent a delegation that was headed by the Minister of Presidential Affairs and had a discussion with the government of Kenya over the issue of Nepal.
South Sudan made a committee of 18 officials who have been meeting with the Kenyan government to resolve the land encroachment matter.
However, in February the Kenyan government denied the allegation of land theft. Kenya’s Foreign Affairs Principal Secretary Korir Sing’oei said his country did not encroach on South Sudan land, noting that boundary delimitation is currently ongoing under the African Union.
Mr. Sing’oei defended his country by saying that Kenya respects the territorial boundaries of all their neighbors and has not claimed ownership of any of their territories.
Uganda and South Sudan land encroachment matters
The government of South Sudan reported their territory theft issue by Uganda to the chairman of the African Union Moussa Faki during the African Union delegation led by His Excellency Hussein Abdel-Bagi.
In addition to that they petitioned the African Union requesting for support for the bilateral discussion between Uganda and South Sudan on the boundaries of the nations.
South Sudan says that there are ongoing military activities by the Ugandan army in mining and sugar cane activities in Magwi County.
Last year, Uganda and South Sudan reached a significant stage of willingness to solve the problems of their borders in order to end border conflicts between the two neighboring nations.
This happened after the UPDF and SSPDF signed an agreement on 6th August 2022, to form structures and share intelligence information on South Sudan rebels alleged to be hiding in Uganda disguised as refugees.
Uganda said the two countries were looking forward to having a memorandum of understanding to help them cooperate at the border areas.
The August 2022 meeting was not the first meeting between Uganda and South Sudan’s army where they aimed to strengthen their relationship. Also in May this year the two army authorities and the communities that are living at the border, had a meeting in Madi Opei to strengthen their relationship.
In June 2022, the UPDF killed an SSPDF soldier and wounded two others after two forces clashed. South Sudan State officials accused the UPDF of encroaching into and carrying out food and mechanized patrols in South Sudan territory. The UPDF set up a base in the Chugi area of Owiny-Ki-Bul Payam. The move compelled the SSPDF to react. Resulting in an exchange of gunfire in which the SSPDF soldier was killed.
In the past years, there have been several border clashes between Uganda’s army and South Sudan’s soldiers. In July 2022, four South Sudan People’s Defence Forces (SSPDF) soldiers and one National Police Service officer were shot and killed by the Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF).
In October 2020 SSPDF reported that two of its soldiers were killed and another captured by the UPDF. The incident happened when the UPDF entered South Sudan territory and opened fire on the SSPDF at the border town of Pogee.
Uganda and South Sudan’s efforts to resolve border tension
In January 2019, The government of Uganda and South Sudan formed a joint technical border committee of 26 members to resolve border tensions between the two neighboring nations by demarcating borders. Uganda had 13 members and the other 13 members were South Sudanese. These 26 members were tasked to sensitize the people living along the border so that they know that the committee was informed to demarcate the border.
In 2015. Uganda and South Sudan formed an 18-member Joint Border Committee to start the demarcation to resolve border disputes. Forming this committee followed accusations from both countries accusing each other of encroaching into their territories creating tensions among the border communities.
Border demarcation hindrances
Even though both countries have come up with solutions to solving border clashes by forming committees, these stalled due to a lack of funds according to the South Sudanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs. There was also limited time to enable the two countries to complete the sensitization exercise amongst the border communities.
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