Uganda Says Military Kills 309 In 8-month old Security Push

Uganda’s military says it has killed 309 people in an eight-month-old operation against cattle rustling in a northeast region rich in minerals including gold, limestone and potentially oil.

The Uganda People’s Defence Force (UPDF), the east African country’s military, said the deaths resulted from a push to quell violence by cattle rustlers in Karamoja region since last July.

A statement late on Tuesday, it said that the UPDF, working with other sister security agencies … will continue working together to completely pacify Karamoja and end all the criminality in the sub-region.

It termed those killed as “warriors”, without elaborating.

Inhabited by nomadic pastoralists, Karamoja has long suffered banditry, livestock raids and inter-clan warfare fuelled by cheap, readily available guns.

Rivalry and competition for grazing land and watering points for animals as well as raids for cattle has traditionally fomented violence between different Karamajong communities and against pastoral communities across the border in Kenya.

In a tweet on Wednesday President Yoweri Museveni’s son, Muhoozi Kainerugaba, a commander of UPDF land forces, said they had probably killed more people than the number the UPDF gave in the statement.

UPDF said they had also recovered 184 guns in the operation and arrested 1,700 people.

In 2020, Uganda began conducting a mineral survey and mapping exercise in Karamoja, thought to hold substantial reserves of gold, copper, limestone, oil and other minerals.