Two fishermen from Lake Edward in Bwambara Sub County, Rukungiri district, Moses Sunday, 22, a resident of Rumira village and Innocent Namanya, 26, a resident of Kyehunde village, were found dead. They were employees of Aisha Mugenyi, a fish dealer at the Rweshama Landing Site.
The duo, along with a group of others, sailed on the lake on July 4, 2024, at around 2:00 a.m. to carry out fishing. The group crossed the Ugandan border into the Kagezi area in North Kivu province, Democratic Republic of Congo.
On July 11, 2024, at around 10:30 a.m., as they were preparing hooks to continue fishing, one of the fishermen, Atwibu Mwesigwa, saw DRC soldiers approaching and yelled a warning to his fellows to run back to the Ugandan side. The soldiers started shooting at them as they were fleeing.
By the time they sailed back to the Rweshama landing site, Namanya and Sunday were missing. Mwesigwa reported the incident to their boss, and they filed a missing persons report at Rweshama police station. Later, they mobilized and went back to Kagezi to search for them.
They found Namanya and Sunday’s bodies floating on the water in the Kagezi area on July 15, 2024.
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.