The Impact of Mining on Human Rights in Karamoja, Uganda
Artisanal miners in Lopedo, Kaabong, look for gold in deep trenches and pits. Artisanal mining is a key source of income for many communities in Karamoja during the dry season. A mining company recently acquired a license to carry out exploration on this land, raising serious concerns for the rights of the community. © 2013 Jessica Evans/Human Rights Watch
Basic survival is very difficult for the 1.2 million people who live in Karamoja, a remote region in northeastern Uganda bordering Kenya marked by chronic poverty and the poorest human development indicators in the country. Traditional dependence on semi-nomadic cattle-raising has been increasingly jeopardized. Extreme climate variability, amongst other factors, has made the region’s pastoralist and agro-pastoralist people highly vulnerable to food insecurity. Other factors include gazetting of land, under both colonial and recent governments, for wildlife conservation and hunting that prompted restrictions on their mobility, and more recently the Ugandan army’s brutal campaign of forced disarmament to rid the region of guns and reduce raids between neighboring groups caused death and loss of livestock. Uganda’s government hasUganda’s government has promoted private investment in mining in Karamoja as a way of developing the region since violent incidents of cattle rustling between communities have decreased in recent years. Karamoja has long been thought to possess considerable mineral deposits and sits on the frontier of a potential mining boom. Private sector investment could transform the region, providing jobs and improving residents’ security, access to water, roads, and other infrastructure. But the extent to which Karamoja’s communities will benefit, if at all, remains an open question and the potential for harm is great. As companies have begun to explore and mine the area, communities are voicing serious fears of land grabs, environmental damage, and a lack of information as to how and when they will see improved access to basic services or other positive impacts.
Communities in Karamoja have traditionally survived through a combination of pastoral and agro-pastoral livelihoods, balancing cattle-raising with opportunistic crop cultivation. Communities are usually led by male elders who gather in open-air shrines to make decisions of importance to the community and share information. Land is held communally, with multiple overlapping uses, including grazing, habitation, and migration. Over the last two generations, both men and women have turned to the grueling work of artisanal gold mining for cash in part because of increased weather variability and the loss of livestock due to cattle raiding and the government’s disarmament program. This increases community concerns for how large scale mining will affect their survival and makes the lack of consultation and information with affected communities all the more dire. Source Human Rights Watch
We were told to leave. We told them this is our home but they could not listen to us.
Residents facing eviction by mining companies
Karamoja- John Aleper, 30, a resident of Chepkarap Parish, Karita Sub-county in Amudat District, speaks with anger when narrating how he was evicted from his land by private mining companies without an explanation. “Life has become a struggle since I was evicted from my land,” Mr Aleper says amid tears. He says on the fateful day early this year, a group of people raided their village, Lokales, and forced them out. “We were told to leave. We told them this is our home but they could not listen to us,” he says. They were later told that they were evicted to allow gold mining by an unidentified company. His story is a reflection of the current evictions going on in the region. Unfortunately, the evicted people are never compensated. More than 4,000 people have reportedly been evicted from their land to allow exploration and mining in the region, which is a key source of income for many communities in Karamoja. In recent years, there is a scramble for Karamoja land after studies showed that the region is endowed with gold, limestone and uranium, among other minerals. The government has permitted private investment in mining as a way of promoting the area and has issued private miners licences. But civil society organisations have warned that the Karimojong could end up as squatters if mining companies are not restrained.
It is the local leaders who allocate the sites to the companies without the knowledge of the district leadership
Mass land evictions
Mr Samwel Psorich, the district information officer, says more than 1,000 locals have been evicted by the artisanal miners. “They are evicted on their land without their consent to allow companies to extract minerals like gold,” he says. Mr Psorich accuses the local council leadership of allocating illegally. “It is the local leaders who allocate the sites to the companies without the knowledge of the district leadership,” he says. The companies that were licensed to explore minerals in the district come from as far as Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, Congo and Kenya. “As a district, we have only intervened and cautioned the companies against mistreating the locals,” he says.