Surrender or Die: Ex-Minister Ecweru Tells Peter Elwelu as He Announces Arrow Boys Will Join Hunt for Him

Former State Minister for Works and Transport Musa Francis Ecweru has issued a stark warning to retired Lt. Gen. Peter Elwelu, offering him a route to surrender through trusted community leaders while threatening that the former military commander could be killed if he is found resisting arrest in hiding.

Ecweru, who chairs the Arrow Boys, the former auxiliary force that helped Uganda’s military fight insurgents in eastern Uganda, said former fighters would join the police, internal security officers and other law enforcement personnel in efforts to establish Elwelu’s whereabouts.

The announcement, made in Soroti on Thursday, October 29, 2026, brought the region’s painful history of insurgency into a developing security controversy surrounding one of Uganda’s most prominent retired military officers.

“No one will disrupt the peace of Teso. Former Arrow Boys will join the police, internal security and other law enforcement officers to look for Peter Elwelu,” vowed Ecweru.

He presented the proposed search as a defence of a fragile peace secured after years of rebellion, insisting that Teso would not be allowed to return to the violence that once displaced families, emptied villages and left communities struggling to rebuild.

But his warning carried a more personal appeal, too. Ecweru urged Elwelu to abandon any alleged plans for an insurrection and surrender before the situation escalated into a confrontation with security forces or former combatants.

“If it is true that comrade Peter Elwelu wants to cause an insurrection, I don’t know where but if it is in Teso here, it is a stupid decision, a very stupid decision, which he will live to regret badly,” he noted.

Ecweru did not present evidence at the news conference establishing that Elwelu was organising an armed uprising. His remarks described the alleged threat conditionally, even as he announced plans to help locate the retired general.

The distinction matters in a country where accusations of rebellion carry considerable weight, particularly when directed at former senior military officers with extensive knowledge of the security establishment.

A way out through trusted leaders

Rather than insist that Elwelu surrender directly to security agencies, Ecweru proposed that he approach people whose standing in Teso might help secure a peaceful handover.

He named Bishop Joseph Eciru, the Iteso cultural leader Emorimor and Vice President Jessica Alupo as possible intermediaries, suggesting that Elwelu could seek their assistance if he feared being mistreated by security personnel.

Ecweru urged the former general to take that route by Thursday evening, presenting surrender as an opportunity to resolve the matter without bloodshed.

“Nobody will scratch him the moment he reaches the bishop. Nobody will scratch him,” he promised.

“This one I can promise.”

He suggested that respected leaders could facilitate Elwelu’s transfer to President Yoweri Museveni, where the former officer might explain himself and seek forgiveness.

Ecweru said he believed Elwelu could be pardoned if he accounted for his actions and apologised where necessary. He did not establish that any pardon had been offered or that the President had agreed to such an arrangement.

The offer of mediation was accompanied by a threat that left little room for ambiguity about the risks of a confrontation.

“If we get him in a thicket or hiding in some house, I am afraid he will die,” noted Ecweru.

The statement underscored the danger of involving former combatants in a search for a retired senior officer, particularly if a reported disappearance or suspected political dispute were to develop into an armed encounter.

Ecweru said he had discussed the matter with government leaders and sought to reassure residents that the region would remain peaceful. He urged Elwelu’s relatives and associates to encourage him to use established channels rather than risk a confrontation.

As of the announcement, Ecweru’s account did not establish Elwelu’s precise whereabouts, nor did it independently confirm the allegations of an insurrection.

The scars that shaped Ecweru’s warning

For Ecweru, the prospect of renewed rebellion in Teso is inseparable from the region’s history.

In 1987, an insurgency associated with the Uganda People’s Army emerged in eastern Uganda, drawing communities into a prolonged period of insecurity. The conflict left a lasting imprint on the region and shaped the attitudes of leaders who later helped mobilise local resistance to armed groups.

Ecweru said those experiences produced a commitment among local leaders and former combatants never to allow the region to descend into anarchy again.

“We made a commitment: we will never allow anarchy in Teso again for as long as we are alive. And it is in black and white,” he recalled.

That resolve was tested again in 2003, when the Lord’s Resistance Army, led by Joseph Kony, moved into Teso after years of operating mainly in northern Uganda.

The incursion brought renewed fear to communities that had already endured years of conflict. The LRA was notorious for attacks on civilians, abductions and the recruitment of children into its ranks.

The government responded with military operations involving the Uganda People’s Defence Forces and local auxiliary fighters. Ecweru said former combatants were organised under the Arrow Auxiliary Force to support the army in pushing the rebels out of the region.

He said the campaign continued through 2004 and into early 2005, when the LRA was driven from Teso.

The experience became central to the identity of the Arrow Boys, whose members were drawn from communities that had suffered during the insurgency and who took up arms to help defend their homes.

After the operation, the auxiliary force was dismantled and its members demobilised. Ecweru said some were integrated into the national army and the Uganda Police Force, while close to 4,000 were sent home as reservists.

He described the former fighters as civilians who had returned to ordinary life but remained committed to protecting the peace they had helped restore.

Their proposed participation in the search for Elwelu would bring that wartime legacy into a new and politically sensitive setting. Ecweru offered no detailed account of the command arrangements, legal authority or operational safeguards under which the former fighters would work alongside state security agencies.

A retired general at the centre of a security controversy

Elwelu is a former deputy chief of defence forces of the Uganda People’s Defence Forces, a position that placed him among the military’s most senior commanders.

His military career made him a familiar figure in national security circles. His name has also been associated with controversy over the army’s conduct during operations in Kasese in November 2016, when security forces attacked the palace of the Rwenzururu king, Charles Wesley Mumbere.

The operation resulted in scores of deaths, including members of the royal guard, according to accounts of the incident. Elwelu, who commanded the UPDF’s Second Division at the time, became one of the principal military figures associated with the operation.

The events in Kasese remain a significant part of the public record surrounding his military career, although the circumstances of the current controversy described by Ecweru are separate from that episode.

The immediate question raised by Ecweru’s announcement was not only where Elwelu might be, but what legal and security process would govern any attempt to locate and apprehend him.

Ecweru called on the former officer to surrender voluntarily, but his threat that Elwelu could die if found hiding in a house or thicket raised the prospect of a potentially dangerous encounter.

Missing young people and accusations against radio stations

Ecweru broadened his warning beyond Elwelu, accusing some radio stations of allowing discussions to drift into statements that could inflame public sentiment and undermine security.

He argued that broadcasters had a responsibility to inform, educate and entertain, rather than provide platforms for messages that might encourage unrest.

His criticism centred on what he described as the failure of some presenters to hold guests accountable when discussions moved away from their intended subjects and towards potentially inflammatory political statements.

Ecweru also expressed concern that some leaders were influencing young people to believe the country was approaching a crisis. He alleged that some youths were being promised employment in other parts of Uganda, although he did not publicly establish who was making the offers or whether they were linked to any organised activity.

He said he intended to release, within four days, the names, villages, sub-counties, districts and telephone contacts of young people whose whereabouts were reportedly unknown.

The information, he said, would help determine whether they had left their homes for legitimate reasons or had been lured away under the pretext of employment.

He appealed to parents, local leaders and other authorities to establish the whereabouts of the young people. He also said Gombolola Internal Security Officers and Parish Internal Security Officers would be expected to explain what they knew about developments in their respective areas.

The allegations introduced another layer of uncertainty into the controversy. Ecweru did not provide a verified list of missing youths at the news conference or establish that their movements were connected to Elwelu.

The fate of a former combatant

To illustrate what he regarded as the consequences of returning to armed rebellion, Ecweru recounted the case of Brig. Gen. Smith Opon Achak, a former military officer whom he said he had known and advised against taking up arms.

Ecweru said Opon Achak had expressed frustration over several issues and that he had tried to persuade him against launching another rebellion in a region still recovering from earlier conflicts.

He said the former officer ignored the advice, later disappeared from his home and was eventually killed.

Ecweru invoked the episode as a warning that grievances, however deeply felt, could lead to devastating consequences when pursued through armed confrontation.

His message to Elwelu was that the retired general should not underestimate the suffering another conflict could inflict on communities that had already paid a heavy price for insecurity.

“We can continue to have disagreements, but peace is our commitment, our common denominator,” noted Ecweru.

The appeal was consistent with his offer of mediation through religious, cultural and political leaders. But the threat accompanying it revealed the tension at the heart of his message: a promise of safe passage for a man willing to surrender, and the prospect of death if he were found resisting in hiding.

Ecweru insisted that Teso would not be allowed to slide back into conflict. He called on Elwelu, his relatives and associates to cooperate with community leaders and security authorities to resolve the matter peacefully.

For a region whose recent history has been shaped by successive insurgencies, the former minister’s announcement was both a declaration of resolve and a warning of how quickly the pursuit of peace could become dangerous if the search for a retired general ended in confrontation.

Chief of Defence Forces Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba quickly applauded Ecweru.

“I thank Hon. Musa Ecweru for his very firm statement in the media against anyone fomenting trouble in Teso. Especially Private Elweru,” wrote Muhoozi.

“I completely support his position.”

Meanwhile, on the day it has emerged that Elwelu’s driver was arrested, recruited rebels have also reportedly confessed that Elwelu told them of a plan to assassinate Muhoozi and remove Museveni, as reported Here and There.