Residents of Apaa parish, Pabbo Sub County in Amuru district have refused to leave the area claimed by the Uganda Wildlife Authority—UWA as a Game Reserve.
The residents maintain that the area is a customary land which has been occupied by their ancestors for the past many years. UWA spent the last few days sending information through the local radio stations asking the population in the area to begin evacuating the area. However, none of the residents is willing to leave. Many who waited at Apaa Trading Center to meet the eviction team said they had no alternative land to move to.
On Thursday, a meeting was held between UWA and the local leaders of Amuru and Adjumani districts, who are also claiming part of the land. The closed door meeting took place at Adjumani Youth Center. Grace Turyagumanawe, the Assistant Inspector General of Police who was part of the team said they plan to use the local authority to help implement a cabinet resolution to protect the Wildlife Reserve by stopping further encroachment. He also dismissed as rumors that the land had been bought by some individuals who want to establish game hunting.
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Tom Okello, the Manager of Murchison Falls Conservation Area said they are heading for another meeting with the residents on Friday to try and resolve the conflict. Okello said they would use the police to carry out the eviction if the people fail to leave peacefully.
But Gilbert Oulanya, the area MP has asked the population in the area to remain put. Oulanya maintains that the land in question is under customary ownership and not the property of the UWA. He explained that an emergency meeting that Members of Acholi Parliamentary Group convened yesterday resolved to seek the services of lawyers to secure an injunction on the land until the conflict is peacefully resolved.
He said the meeting also resolved that if the government proceeds with the eviction threat, they would seek to secede from the government ruled by President Yoweri Museveni.
The area under contention is home to more than 2,000 people, according to a 2011 assessment report by the UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Activities.
Justino Okot, the Apaa LC1 chairperson explains that people were previously relocated away from the area during the British colonial rule due to tsetse fly infestation. He however said the population returned to the area in the 1970s during Iddi Amin’s regime before gradually leaving again during the years of insurgency that lasted in the region from about 1988 to 2006. When government signed a ceasefire with the LRA rebels paving way for relative peace to prevail, people started returning to the area and to re-settle on the land.
Since the return of the displaced persons over the last six years, there have been on and off threats by UWA to carry out evictions in the area saying the land is a gazetted Game Reserve. The Authority says that the land is part of the East Madi Wildlife reserve measuring 827 kilometers that was allegedly gazetted in 2002.
Tom Okello says that presently, about 150 households are suspected to be living in the area and who he said should be evicted.
Turygumanawe meanwhile has told the residents that the exercise is meant to protect Wildlife and boost foreign exchange through increased tourism activities. It remains unclear how and when the eviction threat, which could render over 2,000 people homeless, will be concluded.
