The urban police station of the Congolese national police in Uvira (South Kivu) presented, Tuesday January 10 to the mayor of the city, a batch of weapons of war and military effects seized following a general search operation known as “closing » in three districts of the city. Seventeen people apprehended during this same operation were also presented to the urban authority in front of the media.
In total, ten AK-47 type weapons were seized in addition to some military effects.
Among the seventeen people arrested were 12 FARDC soldiers and 5 civilians, including two Burundian nationals.
The closure operation was carried out for two days, last Friday and Saturday, in two neighborhoods of the city of Uvira.
This dragnet is the work of the staff of the urban police station of the Congolese National Police with the support of the FARDC.
Five AK-47 weapons, military uniforms, boots and a machete were taken from the hands of FARDC soldiers staying unauthorized in the town of Uvira while the other five weapons of war were found abandoned in houses under construction.
Mayor Kiza Muhato specified that this operation follows the increase in insecurity in the neighborhoods raided:
“There was already an increase in criminals in these neighborhoods. We were already invaded by unfortunate events where people’s heads were chopped off using machetes, cases of killings. We were already collecting corpses every day.”
He deplored the presence of FARDC soldiers staying illegally in the city:
“When you see a large number of soldiers who have moved, soldiers who came from elsewhere and who had already settled in the neighborhoods without the knowledge of all the local leaders. When you see Burundian nationals who hold Congolese voter cards, and people who come to recruit in the refugee camps on behalf of Burundian rebels from Red Tabara, … This is to say that we are neglecting our own security “.
The mayor therefore called on the entire population to be vigilant.
“Without the participation, contribution and involvement of the basic authorities who are the heads of cells, the heads of avenues, the heads of neighborhoods and the population in general, we cannot achieve security in our entity,” argued Kiza Muhato.