Escalating Land Grabbing In Post-conflict Regions of Northern Uganda: A Need for Strengthening Good Land Governance in Acholi Region

By Samuel B. Mabikke

Since the mid 1980s, Northern Uganda- a region of over 13 districts has been devastated by armed conflict particularly by the Lord Resistance Army (LRA) as well as old age cattle rustling by armed Karamajong rustlers in the Karamoja region. As a result of insecurity, large sections of the population were displaced into either camps or in locations generally at 3 to 10 km away from the original homes. Many farming lands were abandoned due to insecurity and as a military strategy to cut food supplies to the LRA rebels, the Uganda People’s Defence Force (UPDF) army restricted farming activities only close to the camps. Since the Government of Uganda (GoU) and the LRA rebels announced their intention to negotiate a peaceful end to the 23 year conflict, there has been gradual improvement in the security situation, even with some pockets of normalisation as the peace talks between the GoU and LRA in Juba progressed, this prompted Government to announce the return and resettlement of the Internally Displaced People (IDP), within the framework of the Peace, Recovery and Development Plan (PRDP) for Northern Uganda (Rugadya et al., 2008). With relative peace returning to the region, the GoU has embarked on Post Conflict Reconstruction Programs (PCRP) aimed at supporting “Returnees” from camps to settle back to their original homelands.