Karimojong warriors shoot dead village health team official over ‘snitching’

KARIMOJA, UGANDA: Suspected Karimojong rustlers have shot dead a village health team (VHT) member in Kotido district. The rustlers gunned down Moses Koryang at Kokorok village on Friday afternoon on allegations that he is a security informer.

Joseph Komol, the LCV chairperson of Kotido district, says that the deceased was chatting with other residents after work but the rustlers suspected that he was coordinating with soldiers.

“He started scrolling through contacts on his phone to call his colleagues but the armed rustlers who were next to him thought he was calling soldiers,” he said.

According to Komol, the warriors tried to grab the deceased’s phone but he resisted before taking off. The warrior chased after him before shooting him dead. Micheal Longole, the Karamoja regional police spokesperson confirmed the incident, saying that the joint forces are hunting for the killer warriors. He also revealed that around 9 pm, the joint security forces clashed with another group of armed warriors in the same area, and recovered two guns.

“Our personnel injured one warrior and we managed to recover two guns from the same area where the village health team member was shot dead,” he said.

Jessica Nakongo, one of the VHT members for Kacheri, said they will lay down their tools if the governmnet does not provide them security.

“We don’t have any business with security. Our work is just to rescue the lives of the malnourished children but instead, people whose children we are treating have taken us to be informers,” she said.

Moses Mudong, another VHT member attached to Panyangara, said many malnourished children are likely to die in Kotido because the current environment is not friendly for them to administer treatment. The warriors have gunned down several other people in the past few weeks triggering panic among the residents and local leaders.