Broken Warriors: the Karamojong of Uganda
Following the Ugandan government's ferocious disarmament campaign against the Karamojong, what does the future hold for this tribe of warrior nomads?
Following the Ugandan government's ferocious disarmament campaign against the Karamojong, what does the future hold for this tribe of warrior nomads?
After years of begging and abuse on the streets of Kampala, Emmanuel Lokwii, 13, is back home in Karamoja.
Soothsayer Naithan Namuga once earned money sending young men off on deadly cattle raids- now he says he's promoting peace and curing petty ailments. But with life a struggle, that could change.
The Ugandan People's Defense Force uses "cordon and search" operations to prevent violent cattle raids among the tribes of Uganda's Karamoja region.
Part of a decade-long campaign across Karamoja to recover illegal weapons and put an end to violent cattle raids, the Ugandan army's recent push to disarm the Pokot has been mired by allegations of serious abuses.
After losing their cattle and livelihoods to raids and drought, many Karamojong have turned to subsistence mining to make a living.
In Karamoja, regular "cordon and search" disarmament operations carried out by the military raise questions about allegations of torture and violence.
On the slopes of Mount Moroto in the remote northeastern corner of Uganda, members of the Karamojong tribe, including children, mine for gold in the parched red earth.
The Ugandan government may have succeeded in their disarmament campaigns against former warriors, but what can they offer them instead? The warriors' futures hang in the balance.
For nearly 25 years the Lord's Resistance Army has brought terror to villages in Uganda and its bordering countries. The survivors have terrible stories to tell.
Joe Bavier and Marcus Bleasdale introduce their reporting project on the hunt for the Lord's Resistance Army.
The Ugandan Police is hunting traditional healers who kidnap children to sacrifice them. And it's fighting against the greed of a new middle class, which rely on magic rituals to get richer.
Note: This article was originally featured in the German newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung, which ran this story shortly after Marco left Uganda. Story by Arne Perras, photos by Marco Vernaschi.
Click on the image above to read the article in Italian.