Raiders, diseases and the lack of water and pasture are hitting the livestock of north-east Uganda, reports Jane Beesley.

As light starts to break across the horizon the livestock belonging to 17,000 people are anxious to leave the confines of the kraal (an enclosure for livestock) to search for water and pasture. Sights, sounds and smells are impressive. Young boys gather together, wrapped in blankets they stand shivering in the early morning air. Thousands of flies are already at work. As the day dawns both people and livestock face long treks in search of water and pasture. Resources close to the kraal have already been exhausted and with the failure of the rains the daily trek gets longer. And they must be back in the kraal by nightfall – with another year of failed rains the threat of raids and insecurity has risen. The kraals have been an attempt to keep people and animals protected but now these too face raids.

Around Kotido and Kaabong in Karomoja District, north-east Uganda, the wind makes it hard at times to hear what people are saying, but this isn’t a wind that brings rain like in many places. All it’s bringing at the moment is dust. It’s also not the time for rain but the forecasts have been saying there will be El Nino rains. But even these have not appeared - everyone asks where they are. It’s too late for the crops but they hope that these will mean there will be more pasture and water for the animals.

The people here are agro-pastoralists – they grow crops and keep livestock. The crops have failed because there’s been no rain and raiders, diseases and the lack of water and pasture have hit the livestock. With little or no alternative people are depleting their few resources… primarily cutting down trees to sell as firewood or to make and sell charcoal. Even this is a risky business. “When we go looking for firewood and wild fruits we can be killed, undressed and raped,” says Betty Lokol, “… it’s making it difficult to access these things, which we traditionally turn to in times of drought. But we can’t just stay and say, ‘Let us wait for hunger to kill us’ so we collect firewood from nearby… depleting the wood near our village… what else can we do? There are no alternatives.”

Back at the kraal Oxfam trained community animal health workers (CAHWs) are hard at work deworming the cattle (pictured) and spraying for ticks. The sheep and goats are completely drenched though some of the goats are cunning and hide behind me as I try to take photographs. Soon I’m drenched and now there’s no danger of ticks on me. The team of 15 CAHWs work flat out for several hours but time is against them and the owners are keen to get their animals out to water and pasture before it’s too late. Equally they appreciate the work of the CAHWs and anxiously ask if would be possible for them to return the next day to spray and de-worm the rest of the animals.

There are now 180 trained animal health workers in the district but still that’s not enough. They only have time to make three visits to each kraal in a year.

“Previously we didn’t spray but now we know that spraying really reduces ticks. The CAHWs have also helped us and showed us how to administer drugs, and what drugs are needed to treat what disease or infection. The most important thing now”, says Numuya Lopia, “is to support them and develop their capacity to each and every community.”

It’s a memorable visit for more reasons than one… but perhaps the most surreal memory is of our driver, John Bosco - dressed traditionally, singing along to ‘Lucille’ by Kenny Rodgers. It’s a song that haunts me for the rest of the day. The chorus line of ‘four hungry children and a crop in the field’…I feel he should be grateful that he has a crop in the field.

Find out more: East Africa Food Crisis

Tags: east africa, East Africa Food Crisis, uganda

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 11th, 2009 at 9:00 am and is filed under General, Global food crisis, Humanitarian, News Blog, You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.