South Sudan: Standoff at Elegu as truck drivers protest extortion

Truck drivers queue at Elegu border point in Elegu Town Council, Amuru District, yesterday (PHOTO / TOBBIAS j. OWINY)

There was drama at Elegu border point in Elegu Town Council, Amuru District, yesterday after hundreds of truck drivers protested what they termed as extortion by South Sudan government immigration and security forces.

The strike, which started at around midday, according to sources who spoke to Daily Monitor, paralysed business at the Uganda Revenue Authority’s clearance unit for nearly two hours.

This resulted in a standoff between the truckers and security forces, who ordered them to clear the area for other travellers.

An official, who works with the Ministry of Internal Affairs (Immigration Department), told this newspaper on condition of anonymity that since 12pm yesterday, they had not cleared any single trucker following the strike.

“The entire unit was blocked by truck drivers until we engaged security, some were held up,” the official said.

“We have not cleared any single truck driver since midday because none of them wants to cross over to South Sudan, but the other passenger vehicles are moving in and out normally,” the official added.

Daily Monitor also established that the strike did not affect the clearance of trucks from South Sudan into Uganda.

Attempts to get a comment from police on the chaotic scenes and if any truck drivers were arrested were futile by press time. But one police officer referred us to the Uganda Revenue Authority Elegu Operations manager, Ms Harriet Acen.

Ms Acen, however, declined to make a comment stating that she was not authorised to speak to the media on behalf of the authority.

 Mr Hakim Kibirige, one of the truck drivers from Kampala, who was destined for Juba, the capital city of South Sudan, said the decision to stage a strike was reached after increased detentions and cases of attacks and killings of truck drivers who failed to pay bribes inside South Sudan.

Mr Kibirige said more than seven truck drivers are in military detention at the Nimule border point for more than a fortnight after they were arrested for refusing to pay the fees before being issued receipts.

“South Sudan depends on goods and services that we the truckers deliver to them and the strike is to call for their attention and demand them to come up with clear solutions to our dilemma before we can resume business,”Mr Kibirige said.

We could not establish from South Sudan authorities by press time how much they charge to clear trucks.

 Mr Abdinasir Omar, a truck driver from Eldoret, Kenya, said all truckers from the East African states are participating in the strike.

“We are striking against South Sudan, we have no problem with Uganda. The problem is that traffic officers, immigration, police, and the army in South Sudan are greedy. When you see a traffic officer, a soldier, or a police officer, he is everything,” he said.

Mr Omar added: “Even when you are in their streets accessing a shop, a supermarket, or a fuel station, the demand for money and when you refuse to pay, they arrest and detain you. We are not businessmen that they can extort from, we are just transporters who deliver the goods to them.”

 According to Mr Omar, the South Sudan forces demand bribes in excess of KShs8,000 (about Shs240,000), and “if you ask for a receipt, they threaten ’’.

The truckers also accused South Sudan security operatives of allegedly demanding more than $250,000 for the release of detained truck drivers.

“Our colleagues who comprise Uganda, Kenya, and Somalia held in detention in Nimule are demanding our union to pay $250,000 (about KShs25 million) and that is a lot of money, so we are also demanding their release,” Mr Omar added.

However, we could not independently verify the claims.

By last evening, about 500 trucks had been parked at the BLD Parking Yard in Elegu Town following the strike.

In August 2021, business at the Elegu border was brought to a standstill when truck drivers entering and exiting South Sudan held a protest over the murder of one of their colleagues in Nimule.

The drivers blocked traffic while demanding answers from the Ugandan authorities on why the shooting and killing of drivers had persisted in South Sudan despite an earlier commitment to end the vice.