Over 400 Vehicles Stolen From Uganda to Congo in Five Years Through Illicit Border Routes

Local Police Authority in Uganda has said that over 400 vehicles are stolen through unapproved routes from Uganda to Democratic of Congo.

According to the agency, the last five years since 2011, a total of 474 vehicles have been stolen from Uganda and taken to DR Congo. Even as only two cars are known to have been taken to Rwanda.

Asan Kasingye, the head, Interpol said on Thursday last week that some of the cars are to exported to Uganda , while in 2015, two vehicles were reported stolen from  Rwanda.

Speaking with journalists on July 7 at the Directorate of Interpol, Kololo, ,he said that most stolen vehicles are driven into Congo through un-gazetted border crossing points, like Vurra

He stated that "Out of 474 stolen vehicles, we have more than 100 cars that we are trying to repatriate to Uganda from Congo. Very few stolen vehicles are taken to Rwanda. Since last year, only two stolen vehicles were stolen from here to Rwanda," 

He said very few car thieves run to Rwanda because it doesn't have porous border crossing points like Congo, Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda and South Sudan.

"It's only Rwanda where it's impossible to take stolen vehicles because there is a 99.9 chance you would be detected at the border and arrested. They have extended their high-tech 24/7 and integrated it at all borders," he said..

In the last five years, he said, over 23 vehicles were stolen from Uganda and taken to Tanzania through Mutukula, which has more than 10 ungazatted border crossing points. 

He also said the steep rise in car thefts is brought on by the end of the pre-inspection of vehicles that enter the country.

"This is where Interpol used to check the vehicle's registration number before they could enter the country and find out if the vehicles are stolen or not," Kasingye said.

"Some people buy stolen vehicles online and register them without checking with Interpol to know if their chassis number and model were tampered with or not. 

So, in our operation, when we find that the car was stolen, we impound it and return it to the owner."

Kasingye said some stolen vehicles have been recovered in Uganda and are parked at Interpol headquarters in Kampala. 

He said most stolen vehicles in Uganda are from United Kingdom, South Africa, Kenya, Japan, Tanzania and South Sudan.