Crisis in Karamoja

The conflict in northern Uganda continues to interact with chronic insecurity, human rights abuses and extreme poverty in the Karamoja region of northeastern Uganda. Illegally armed cattle raiders have wreaked havoc on communities both within Karamoja and in neighboring northern Uganda, while government efforts to forcibly disarm them have unleashed a separate wave of terror on communities. Underneath this surface of simmering violence lies a unique and complex emergency rooted in decades of political and economic marginalization, poor governance and rapidly changing cultural norms. Addressing these root causes of conflict is crucial to stabilizing not only Karamoja, but also to consolidating a sustainable peace in northern Uganda.

Changing times: small arms, cattle raiding and cultural flux
The one million inhabitants of Karamoja share ethnic roots and livelihoods with pastoralist groups in Sudan and Kenya, cultures in which cattle occupy a central role. Karamojong and their cattle depend on a highly mobile lifestyle in which men, women and children migrate between homesteads and mobile cattle camps. Historically, they have been fiercely resistant to attempts by successive colonial and post-colonial governments to assert their authority and introduce schools, sedentary lifestyles and Western dress.

Conflicts with government authorities and the proliferation of small arms have had a profound effect on the region, especially on its long history of cattle raiding. Traditionally cattle raids caused significant loss of life but were mitigated because male raiders used spears, did not target women and children and consulted with their communities’ elders and women before attacking. Over the past several decades however, Karamoja was been awash in small arms acquired in Uganda’s civil wars and in thriving gun markets in neighboring southern Sudan and Somalia. Armed with illegal guns and emboldened by poverty and changing cultural norms, cattle raiders now engage in vicious cycles of raids in which scores of women and children are killed and raped. Stolen cattle are often sold commercially with the help of corrupt businessmen and politicians. As fragile alliances between different Karamojong have been broken large swaths of territory have become dangerous no-man’s land, disrupting seasonal migration routes. Karamojong raids in neighboring northern Uganda, traditionally its economic partner, captured hundreds of thousands of cattle in the 1980s and continue to cause displacement in Acholi and Iteso regions to this day.

The failure of disarmament without development
Into this mix the Ugandan government has made periodic attempts to establish its presence in Karamoja and disarm cattle raiders. The current government’s first serious attempt to rid the region of illegal guns was a voluntary disarmament program in 2001-2 that netted 10,000 weapons. However, disarmament was very uneven and the military proved unable to protect the disarmed from neighboring groups who retained their guns. As groups like the Bokora suffered heavy losses of life and cattle, trust in the government was lost and disarmed groups scrambled to rearm. When the program was revived between 2004-6 less than 2,000 of the region’s estimated 30,000 guns were turned in. Thousands of Karamojong have migrated to Kampala, Uganda’s capital, where they often fall prey to extreme poverty and abuses by local authorities.

In 2006 the Ugandan military launched a forcible disarmament program in which soldiers surround Karamojong residences and search for arms. These “cordon-and-search” operations have been riddled with human rights abuses - looting, beatings, burning homesteads and arbitrary detention. Hundreds of civilians and thousands of cattle have been killed during military operations that have sometimes seen tanks and helicopter gunships used to confront civilians equipped with small arms. Though the military has taken steps in recent months to investigate and prevent abuses, it is still unclear to what extent perpetrators are held accountable. Despite encouraging examples of military detachments working to protect local communities and cattle, the military has failed to systematically shield disarmed groups from rival Karamojong raiders.

Unfortunately, the Ugandan government’s primary response to Karamoja’s woes has been a military solution. The Ugandan government’s Karamoja Integrated Disarmament and Development Programme (KIDDP) has failed to attract donors because it is focused too heavily on military disarmament. Several districts in the region lack any civilian judicial presence, and as of August 2006 only 137 civilian police officers were stationed in the entire region. Meanwhile, a majority of Karamojong households are illiterate and food insecure, and Karamojong children die at higher rates than anywhere else in the country.

Give peace a chance
Extreme poverty and chronic insecurity will persist in Karamoja until the Ugandan government addresses these root causes. Civilian institutions and educational and health services that are appropriate to Karamojong culture must be strengthened. The Ugandan government and military must also better engage local elders, leaders and civil society to broker a lasting peace. Resources must be committed to addressing immediate humanitarian emergencies and to promoting development initiatives that fortify and complement pastoralism, the most durable livelihood in the region. The international community has a crucial, and so far unfulfilled, role in funding and helping to facilitate these efforts.

Karamoja must also be seen as an integral part of the larger struggle to reconcile and rebuild Uganda after decades of civil strife. It essential that Karamoja is not overlooked as the unfolding Peace, Recovery and Development Plan for Northern Uganda (PRDP) is implemented. If Karamoja remains unstable, cattle raids will prevent displaced persons in northern Uganda from returning home – even if the Juba peace talks succeed in demobilizing the LRA threat. The consequences of further marginalizing Karamoja from peace and recovery initiatives not only threaten its own future but also those of neighboring peoples.

Read more about Karamoja by visiting our Bibliography and Additional Resources section.