How fighting for Murchison’s territory devastates lives in Nwoya

Nwoya, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | It is a ride of approximately 40 kilometers along a feeder road in Koch Goma Town Council, a fast-growing town in the Northern Uganda District of Nwoya, until one reaches Ceke Village, a fertile strip of land bordering the Murchison Falls National Park from the northern belt.

The Ceke Village road network is mostly in poor condition, and years of neglect have left it nearly impassable for motorists, who spend hours navigating the muddy stretch to ferry their agricultural products to upscale markets.

The sight of motorcycles laden with maize sacks and young mothers with children strapped to their backs, hoes on their shoulders, and firewood on their heads depicts an area thriving with agriculture.

Indeed, for years, agriculture has flourished in this small village, which is endowed with both high and lowlands. These fertile lands have recently attracted an estimated 3,000 new settlers, predominantly smallholder farmers.

But for those in the agricultural business, it has come at a heavy cost, owing to the persistent incursions of stray elephants from the neighboring Murchison Falls National Park. Fifty-seven-year-old Robert Etot, a farmer and resident of Ceke Village, still bears the scars of an elephant attack that nearly cost him his life while he guarded his farmland three years ago.

When I visited him on the afternoon of November 4, 2024, Etot was seated in his compound, located just about 400 meters from the Murchison Falls National Park buffer zone, with his daughters. The family had just finished their hot meal for the day. From the slings on his hands, it is clear that Etot is still nursing his injuries.

Harrowing Encounter

Etot vividly recalls the night of November 1, 2021, as if it were yesterday. On that fateful day, Etot and five other men attempted to drive off 12 stray elephants from the Murchison Falls National Park that had invaded their community in search of food.

“I had 4 acres with soya beans; others had rice, millet, sorghum, between 1 to 10 tons… up to 200 acres were destroyed that night. An acre produces between 7 to 10 bags of soya beans. I was expecting 8 million. We started beating jerry cans, the elephants stood still, and we moved further… I was beating the jerry can while my friend flashed a torch. One elephant turned toward us, and we scattered, but I got trapped on a fallen tree where it hit me from behind… I fell about 10 meters away, it (the elephant) cried, scooped soil, buried me, and trampled on my left leg before leaving.”

Armed with torches, vuvuzelas, whistles, and drums, the group made lots of noise and managed to drive most of the herd back to the conservation area. Unfortunately, one of the elephants retaliated against the locals.

As the five men scattered to save their lives, Etot became entangled in a fallen tree and became the elephant’s target. “I fell about 10 meters away after it hit my back. It cried loudly, scooped soil, buried me, and trampled on my leg before leaving,” Etot recalls.

Neighbors later rescued him from the mud and rushed him to Acimi Health Center III in Oyam District, some 20 kilometers away, for medical treatment.

Etot moved to Ceke Village in 2007 from Lira District, where he was to share three acres of their ancestral land with his five siblings after over two decades of conflict during the Lord’s Resistance Army insurgency that ravaged Northern Uganda. He wanted more fertile land and better farming opportunities and purchased 15 acres to farm. He now shares a boundary with the park, where crop destruction by wildlife has become an annual ordeal.

After his traumatic encounter, Etot had to abandon food crop production and switch to growing cotton, which elephants do not consume.

“The elephants eat everything we grow. No food crop can survive here without hard work to protect it. Some people have died protecting their crops. I don’t know if I will ever fully recover,” Etot told Uganda Radio Network.

Etot is grateful that the elephants have not destroyed his cotton garden, for now. “I haven’t seen them eating cotton yet. I am weak and can’t protect my garden anymore, so I started growing cotton and used the money to buy food. But I was told that this area will be fenced off. That’s when I will return to growing food,” he said.

Etot has since spent Shs 2.8 million on his medical bills and hopes to one day receive compensation from the Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA).

“I expected 8 million shillings from my crops that year, but the elephants left me empty-handed,” he says.

Toll Extends Beyond Destroyed Crops

While Etot was lucky to survive, others in the village have not been so fortunate. Twenty-three-year-old Nancy Akulu, another victim of human-wildlife conflict in the village, was trampled to death by a stray elephant in July 2024 when it invaded the area.

Akulu was eight months pregnant with twins. She was attacked in her compound when she stepped outside at night.

“She probably thought it was safe because the rest of the elephants had fled. But one remained, eating papaws in her compound. It killed her and her unborn twins,” Etot recalls. Her remains were taken back to her ancestral home in Kole District.

Another victim, 19-year-old Kalvin Omora, a resident of the same area, was also killed by an elephant in Langele Parish in September 2024 while defending his crops.

Omora’s farmland was near the conservation area, but he was killed before harvesting the maize from his 4-acre plot.

Struggling Farmers

The persistent incursions of elephants into the area have become almost routine, with little or no intervention from relevant authorities. This already poses great risks to lives and food security in a community whose livelihoods depend largely on agriculture.

For farmers like 30-year-old Boniface Lukol, conflict with wildlife has become a painful daily reality.

“I lose about five acres of crops every year to elephants. Last week, I saved two acres of maize, but I dislocated my ankle in the process,” Lukol says. He attributes the increasing human-wildlife conflict to competition for space and resources.

“Right now, there is a loss of habitat inside the park due to human activities. Even food isn’t enough there because there are so many elephants, and they come to look for food outside,” he explains.

Lukol believes that the increasing conflict is a result of competition for space as the elephant population increases, just like the human population.

At a nearby trading center, women who are victims of wildlife conflict gather to discuss the ongoing struggle, while men hurriedly return to their makeshift gardens to protect their crops.

Lucy Obuko, who lost four acres of maize to elephants this season, spoke at a meeting that began at exactly 4:00 pm on November 4, 2024.

The gathering seeks solutions to the unending conflicts between humans and wildlife in their communities. Obuko laments the suffering the conflict has caused the men in her community.

“Our men have been guarding crops for four days without coming home, but the elephants still destroyed 20 acres of crops last week,” she says.

The Rising Toll

Nwoya District Chairperson Emmanuel Orach reports that elephants have killed 13 people since October 2023. He estimates that 5,000 acres of crops have been destroyed during the same period.

“Most of the destruction happens outside the protected area, up to 15 kilometers from the park’s borders,” Orach says.

Local leaders confirm that the majority of victims—about 70 percent—are new settlers who migrated from districts like Oyam, Kole, Alebtong, Lira, Kiryandongo, and Apac in search of fertile land.

Leo Odongo, a local leader in the area (Rwot-Kweri), the lowest unit of leadership in the village, is one of the new settlers who has co-existed with wildlife in the park for 11 years. During a recent interview, Odongo revealed that he receives between 2 to 4 complaints each day of elephants destroying crops, adding that the majority of the victims are new settlers.

Sam Onen, the Local Council One (LC1) Chairperson of Ceke Village, noted that elephants have destroyed 1,300 acres of crops in the area from October 2023 to November 2024. He also revealed that 10 people were injured and 2 deaths were recorded in his area, while 40 victims have filed complaints with the Uganda Wildlife Authority seeking compensation.

Why the Conflicts?

The Executive Director for Umoja Conservancy Uganda, Walter Odokorwot, sees no end to the ongoing human-wildlife conflicts as animal corridors now intersect with human settlements.

Before Murchison became a gazetted National Park, Odokorwot noted that the buffer zone, where people have now settled, was both home to and a pathway for elephants.

“Until 2012, when the Uganda Wildlife Authority demarcated the land boundary stretching about 40 kilometers through Oyam to Nwoya, the human population started increasing,” Odokorwot says.

“People respected that area before we created the boundary. They migrated from different parts of the country, settled there, and introduced crops which are more palatable than the park’s pastures. You couldn’t avoid the elephants going to feed on them,” Odokorwot explains.

Alternative Land Use for the Affected Communities

Besides the ongoing conflicts, Odokorwot mentioned that the Umoja Conservancy Uganda, in partnership with the Uganda Wildlife Authority, has started alternative land-use models, such as wildlife-friendly agriculture, to help reduce human-wildlife conflicts. This approach involves finding better ways for communities to live alongside wildlife without resorting to violence.

The new models are still in their infancy, but Odokorwot hopes that, with time, they will offer more sustainable solutions for farming communities living near the park. Here’s the continuation of your story with the cues and quotations preserved:

Legal Provisions and Community Empowerment

“Sections 15 and 23 of the Land Act give them provision to develop land use in a way that benefits them but also wildlife use rights. If those animals which disturb them are in their lands, they can manage and settle them where tourists come and pay them money for,” Odokorwot noted.

Once the community gets organized, the legal provisions through the Land Act and Uganda Wildlife Authority Act give them power to turn their lands into ranching areas or sport hunting grounds with concessions from the government.

“The reality is, there are some animals which haven’t been to the park. We had an elephant which was born in Koch Amar, we tried to bring it to the Park but ran back to its home in the community where it lived and died. The people there named it ‘Wod Amar,’ meaning the son of Amar village,” Odokorwot noted.

Odokorwot, however, pointed out that such animals are many in the community, where tourists can directly pay money to see them, adding, “There is a general talk about compensation, but I don’t know how soon that can be when the government has priority of things to finance, to pay for crops?” he wondered.

Will victims be compensated?

The Uganda Wildlife Compensation Act of 2019 provides for financial assistance to victims of wildlife destruction. However, implementation has been slow.

The Executive Director of the Uganda Wildlife Authority, Sam Mwandha, acknowledges the challenge. “Wildlife doesn’t recognize borders. Where there’s space, they’ll move, often into people’s homesteads and gardens,” he says.

Mwandha explains that compensation delays were due to the lack of supporting regulations, which were only finalized in 2022.

The Uganda Wildlife Authority has since established a Shs2 billion fund, with 900 million already disbursed, and an additional 100 compensation agreements from Kidepo and Murchison Falls were signed by August 2024, according to Mwandha.

“The compensation covers crops like rice, maize, and soybeans, based on market value. Payments range from 50,000 to 30 million shillings,” Mwandha says.

However, the District Chairperson alleges that only three compensation cases from Nwoya have been processed so far. “People who come to my office don’t even have documentation from Uganda Wildlife Authority. It’s unclear if they’ll ever be compensated,” Orach says.

The Communications Manager at Uganda Wildlife Authority, Hanji Bashir, admits that delays persist, citing the centralized process for reviewing claims. “We have one committee in Kampala that handles all claims. Until money is deposited in your account, you’re not compensated,” Bashir says.

Seeking a Permanent Solution

To mitigate conflicts, the government has resumed installing electric fences around Murchison Falls National Park.

With Shs6.5 billion in funding from the World Bank, the project aims to cover 20 kilometers in Nwoya District by March 2025.

“This will leave us with only 35 kilometers of unfenced areas. We’ll continue engaging the government until the entire park is fenced,” Orach says.

In 2022, the government installed 44 kilometers of fencing, including 29 kilometers in Nwoya. An additional 20 kilometers were launched in April 2023.

“The electric fence is the only permanent solution to human-wildlife conflict. But the project has taken too long to complete,” Orach says.

For now, families like Etot must continue guarding their crops through sleepless nights, hoping for a day when their struggle for survival no longer pits them against the wildlife they live alongside.

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