KAABONG – A total of 50 gold miners of Rwandan nationality have been expelled from the gold mining area in Lopedo village, Kapedo sub-county in Kaabong district in Karamoja region.
They were chased on Tuesday 12 by the Kaabong Deputy Resident District Commissioner Mr. Augustine Modo after they failed to produce mining documents and documentation of how they have been paying royalties to government and the sub-county.
Speaking to PML Daily on Wednesday 13, Mr. Modo said the mining site had started harbouring criminals since his office has started receiving a lot of complaints of harassments and child labour from the community.
“When I went to the gold mining site, I was shocked to notice that actually most of the people who were mining gold at the site were not Ugandans and when I asked them who brought them they failed to explain. They could not even show me any document from Uganda’s ministry of minerals. I wanted to arrest them but I just told them to leave immediately,” he said.
Mr.Modo said there were 50 Rwandan nationals mining gold in the area adding that they had no work permit.
Mr. Modo who’s the Chairman of the district security committee for Kaabong district closed all the mining activity in the area and advised the locals also to get organized by registering and get mining licences.
He warned whoever will come back to Kaabong without the detailed documents and full profile of their companies will be arrested.
Meanwhile the general public in Karamoja has hailed the actions of the resident district commissioner describing it as great.
Mr Joseph Lomongin a concerned resident of Kaabong district said the action by the RDC was long overdue saying the foreign nationals have been looting gold in Kaabong without paying the government the royalties.
“The people who are mining gold in Lopedo don’t know Luganda, English apart from Kiswahili only and they have been cheating our people we would like to know who brought them to Kaabong,” he said.
