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By Godwin Abedican Arua On 15th of May 2024, the brokers at south Sudanese fish market Lobida in Arua central division Arua city went or rampage demolishing temporary facilities erected in the market for selling and buying of fish. This stems from a disagreeme
By Godwin Abedican
Arua
On 15th of May 2024, the brokers at south Sudanese fish market Lobida in Arua central division Arua city went or rampage demolishing temporary facilities erected in the market for selling and buying of fish.
This stems from a disagreement between the brokers and their employers the south Sudanese fish traders who came up with a proposal to officially recruit a specific number of brokers to work with, for easy administration following complaints of theft and uncontrolled number of brokers something the brokers didn’t agree with since they had been working there for long.
Since then, the Lobida south Sudanese fish market has remained closed and according to Drakuma Malik, the town clerk Arua central division they are now at loses “It’s now almost over a month. That means over 12 million being lost besides other business opportunities. There were bee hives of other activities women selling tea, food, so all these have been affected,” Drakuma explained.
The closure of the market has led to extra cost incurred by the south Sudanese traders since they are now paying 10,000 shillings for the storage of each bundle of fish at the new site as opposed to the free storage facility they had in the previous market.
David Kwany the treasurer of the south Sudanese fish suppliers Association says they are being pushed hard to give up on trading in Uganda “We are now selling the remains of the fish we have and some of the trucks are coming though not in huge volumes. A huge number of traders have turned the route from Arua to Kasindi side of Congo,” Kwany said.
Ismail Geria, the Manager of the new private LopaLopa market where the south Sudanese fish traders are currently doing storage and sales calls for a shift intervention to save the situation from worsening “Our cry to the government is to pay attention to these people and our place because they are a source of revenue, they need to be protected and this issue can easily escalate,” Geria appealed.
Monthly, the market receives not less than 3 trucks of about 30 to 40 tones, with each truck having over one hundred (100) bundles of fish and each bundle is charged a tax of at thirty thousand (30,000) shillings, meaning an estimated of around twelve million (12,000,000) shillings lost monthly.
COVER PHOTO: The demolished part of th market from the gate By Godwin Abedican