Acholi leaders are concerned about land wars and balalo invasions.
The two situations have prompted local leaders, cultural and religious leaders, and legislators from the Acholi subregion to criticize the government's slow response to the situation
A decade and a half after Joseph Kony’s Lord’s Resistance Army-LRA rebels were defeated in Acholi, lasting peace is still threatened by growing land disputes and the suspicious influx of ‘balalo’ with their unimmunized herds.
The post-conflict region is riven by ferocious land disputes, which are exacerbated by the unsettling advance of nomadic balalo, who are grazing thousands of livestock on a free-range basis, destroying community gardens.
The 827 square kilometers of Apaa territory claimed by the Uganda Wildlife Authority-UWA, Adjumani and Amuru districts since 2012 is one of the bloodiest flashpoints. Since then, more than 20 people have died and hundreds have been displaced.
The two situations have prompted local leaders, cultural and religious leaders, and legislators from the Acholi subregion to criticize the government’s slow response to the situation, which is threatening the population’s peace, security, and development efforts.
Sharon Laker Balmoi, the Gulu District Woman MP, believes that in order to restore harmony and mutual coexistence between the Acholi and Madi populations, the government must commit to ending the ongoing slaughter over the ownership of contentious Apaa land.
John Amos Okot, MP for Agago North County, has faulted the government for failing to find a long-term solution to the fatal Apaa land disputes, which have devolved into tribalism marked by arbitrary arrests and detentions.
On the Balalo ‘invasion,’ Bardege-Layibi Division MP Martin Ojara Mapenduzi claims that the government is purposely hindering cattle restocking efforts in Acholi by allowing pastoralists to move freely with their animals despite the country’s outbreak of foot and mouth disease.
Nwoya district recently lost dozens of cattle to foot and mouth illness, which was blamed on unregulated and late-night cattle transit from disease-prone areas. A quarantine was instituted by the District Veterinary Department, and cattle were mass-vaccinated.
The Ker Kwaro Acholi (Acholi Cultural Institution) also spoke out on the issue, claiming that the region’s long-running land disputes and the influx of Balalo pastoralists continue to stymie development efforts in an already impoverished region.
According to Ambrose Olaa, the Prime Minister of the Acholi Cultural Institution, the post-war Acholi community’s recovery process was mismanaged, resulting in rampant land conflicts and unregulated Balalo pastoralist movements, which are eroding people’s livelihoods.
On November 4, 2021, Chua West County MP Polly Philip Okin Ojara raised the subject of Balalo as a national priority on the floor of parliament, requesting that the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry, and Fisheries (MAAIF) restrict the movement of Balalo pastoralists into the region.
Prior to the January 2021 elections, President Yoweri Museveni urged all Balalo pastoralists seeking to graze their animals in the region to acquire land and fence it to prevent their cattle from intruding on community land while canvassing for votes in Acholi.
Other major property disputes include the Aswa Ranch, which covers over 105,400 hectares and is still raging in Pader district. A variety of firms, as well as the National Animal Genetic Resources Centre-NAGRC, Banuti, and the Aswa Power Project, are currently occupying the space.
Five petitioners, led by retired Supreme Court Judge Galdino Okello Moro, have taken the government to court, including retired Bishop of Kitgum Diocese Macleod Baker Ochola II, former Government Chief Valuer Livingstone Okello Okello, and retired teacher Rosalba Oyaa.
The petitioners are attempting to overturn a presidential decision to lease the area in dispute as free public land to private entities and individuals. Different initiatives in the area have impacted at least 2,500 landowners in the Angugura subcounty.
Land conflicts, combined with Balalo pastoralist infiltration, have irritated regional politicians, who claim that the two reasons are preventing the post-conflict region from fully and steadily recovering from the disastrous impact of the two-decade-long insurgency.
