14 February 2007Alertnet
Drought cycles are coming more often to northeastern Uganda: every two years instead of every five.
Residents could cope, if it wasn't for the bandits.
Lina Lomongin used to have 10 cows to her name -- all good at foraging for scarce pasture in the semi-arid Karamoja region -- and could feed herself and her four children on their milk and blood.
Armed cattle-rustlers left her with just one small calf, screaming children and a field of drought-withered sorghum.
"They attacked last night and took everything," Lomongin told Reuters, pointing to broken cow pens and ruined thatched huts that were all that was left of her home.
"They came to my hut, put a gun in my face. They said they would kill me if I made a sound."
Lomongin has joined the increasing number of Karamojong tribespeople caught between the twin miseries of parched lands and insecurity at the hands of AK47-wielding raiders.
This year, crops dried out when the rains failed, leaving about half a million people dependent on United Nations food aid. Used to drought and hunger, residents of Naweet village were unprepared for also losing their cattle.
"If the raiding stopped, we could live with the droughts," said Martha Lolem, queuing for a World Food Programme (WFP) handout. "We could go and find water if we didn't fear attack."
CONFLICTS WORSENING
Like their cousins, the Turkana, Pokot and Maasai of Kenya, the Karamojong keep cows and live a nomadic, pastoral existence. They are known for their colourful dress and beadwork and have a reputation for being fierce warriors.
Residents say the region's long-running conflicts -- like its droughts -- are getting worse. The two are linked.
With drought cycles coming more often, populations swell in increasingly inhospitable places, and tensions rise.
Aggravated by disputes over shrinking water supplies and a flood of cheap weapons from the volatile Horn of Africa, cattle rustling and clan warfare have escalated between Karamojong warriors and with Kenya's Turkana and Pokot.
Diplomats say the Ugandan army's heavy-handed efforts to tackle the region's gun crime have only added fuel to the fire.
At least 14 soldiers and scores of civilians were killed in clashes between Ugandan troops and Karamojong warriors last October which the Defence Ministry described as a "war".
Under the military's "cordon and search" operations, soldiers encircled villages and forced warriors to hand in their guns. The U.N. also accused them of carrying out torture and summary executions, which Ugandan authorities deny.
"The state can't stand by whilst this raiding continues," army spokesman Felix Kulayigye told Reuters, adding that only about 600 out of tens of thousands of illegal guns were handed in under a nearly two-year voluntary disarmament programme.
He said reports of army misconduct were being investigated.
RELATIVES LOST
Local politicians say the Karamojong see sense in disarming.
"Everybody has lost a brother, mother or husband. Everybody has lost cattle, and the community has lost investment because of the insecurity," local councillor Simon Lemu said.
However, no one will lay down his gun unless his enemies do also.
"If they give up their guns they won't have any means to defend their animals and their families," said Mark Longele, who heads a local peace-building workshop funded by the Washington-based International Rescue Committee.
He said the Karamojong had a "low opinion" of Ugandan security forces and their ability to protect unarmed civilians.
One farmer who handed in 10 guns with scores of bullets in June last year was shot dead in a raid on his 130-strong cattle farm soon afterwards, Longele said.
Experts say only cross-border security cooperation between Kenya, Uganda and southern Sudan is likely to succeed.
Police are toying with ideas such as giving out corrugated iron sheets, which can be used to make roofs for more durable homes, in exchange for guns, and branding cows to deter thieves.
Meanwhile, aid agencies are working on schemes to tackle droughts, such as planting trees as a watershed to boost rainfall and feed rivers.
Scientists increasingly blame global warming caused by burning fossil fuels for Africa's worsening drought cycles and have called for tough action to curb greenhouse gas emissions.
Deforestation caused by charcoal burning and overgrazing by cattle, which eat saplings, are also a major cause of Africa's droughts, they say.
A WFP-supported tree nursery in Karamoja's biggest town, Moroto, hopes to produce an initial 600,000 seedlings of tamarind and other trees to be planted throughout the region.
