Mineral-rich region in Uganda reels under poverty, insecurity

By Godfrey Olukya

KAMPALA, Uganda (AA) - Despite hosting vast uranium and gold reserves beneath the soil, East African country Uganda’s Karamoja region is reeling from poverty. Many people from this region have taken to begging in the capital Kampala, where they are often rounded up by the police and sent to detention centers.

Speaking to Anadolu Agency, David Musenze, a senior journalist said, ironically, the region rich in minerals is the poorest in the country.

“It is ironic that people from Karamoja are begging on the streets of Kampala. Their area is full of gold and other minerals. The minerals are taken away by foreigners leaving the people to continue surviving through cattle rearing,’’ he said.

According to Uganda’s Energy Ministry, Karamoja, which is 470 kilometers (292 miles) east of the capital Kampala, is endowed with a vast amount of minerals. A survey conducted in 2011 found that the region is sitting on reserves of 50 minerals including gold, limestone, uranium marble, graphite, gypsum, iron, wolfram, nickel, copper, cobalt, tin, and diamonds among others.

Recently over 200 children from this region were rounded up by the police in Kampala as they were begging on the roads.

“Some Karamojong mothers take their children as young as three years and place them on the streets for begging. The mothers stand a distance away watching and immediately anyone gives money to the kids they come and take it away,’’ William Kizza, an enforcement officer with Kampala city authority told Anadolu Agency.

Esther Logoli, mother of one of the children, who had been rounded up said her family was forced to leave Karamoja due to insecurity as the region, which borders Kenya has been a battleground between security forces and cattle thieves.

The Ugandan army has launched a large-scale operation in the region to disarm cattle thieves.

“The army will ensure that insecurity in Karamoja is brought to an end,” said Uganda’s army spokesman Brig. Gen. Felix Kulayigye.

John Baptist Lokoris, a local leader said that some gangs were also stealing minerals like gold and limestone.

- Locals not benefiting

He said people from Kampala and other places have been engaged in mining in the region without involving local people.

“Local people are not benefitting from the minerals. So, our people especially the youth resort to cattle rustling as the only way of getting wealth,” he said.

The rush to get the region’s precious minerals out is also uprooting people, damaging water sources, and thus stirring social unrest among people, who are mostly cattle-herders.

Last month three geologists and two soldiers were killed by cattle thieves.

They were reportedly shot while picking soil samples from Lokiselei village in the Karamoja region while accompanied by two government soldiers.

A total of 17,083 square kilometers (6,595 square miles) of land in Karamoja is licensed for mineral exploration and extraction activities, according to official data. Twenty-six companies currently have exploratory or mining rights in the region, reports the Earth Journalism Network, a web portal focusing on the environment and climate change reporting.

It claims that over the past four years, Chinese mining company Sunbelt is operating marble mines in a 7.4 sq. km (2.8 sq. mi) area at the cost of $13 million. But this money has not percolated to the ground to erase extreme poverty in the region.