Influence Operation Northern Uganda over Balaalo Crisis
Land, Livelihoods, Conflict, and the Path to Peace
Country;Uganda
Region;Northern Uganda
Publisher ID;pub - 6403711198558955
Research Code,NuG-057-2025
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The Balaalo crisis is one of Uganda's most complex and politically charged land governance emergencies. For over a decade, semi-nomadic cattle keepers from western Uganda and in some cases from across Uganda's borders with the DRC and Rwanda have settled in the Acholi, Lango, West Nile, and Teso sub-regions, bringing with them large herds that have destroyed crops, degraded wetlands, and triggered violent clashes with indigenous farming communities.
President Museveni has issued at least four executive orders in 2017, 2021, 2023, and 2025 directing non-compliant Balaalo to leave northern Uganda. Each order has faced political sabotage, legal challenge, and incomplete implementation. The 2025 directive, Executive Order No. 2, is described as the most decisive yet: it criminalizes unregulated free-range grazing, mandates a presidential audit committee, prohibits fencing over community water sources, and directs the Attorney General to legislate against the practice.
By July 2025, security forces under 'Operation Harmony' had moved 3,119 cattle from Acholi and West Nile sub-regions. Over 300 Balaalo sued in the High Court, while 15,000 registered herders met in Kiryandongo to appeal the order. Elite political protection of some Balaalo including what Uganda's Chief Justice described as 'modern-day Balaalo' proxies for 15 ministers and army generals continues to undermine enforcement.
Key Metric | Figure | Source |
Cattle in northern Uganda (est.) | 92,000–500,000 heads | District Security Reports / Monitor, 2025 |
Balaalo herders registered in region | 15,000+ | Kigumba Meeting, June 2025 |
Kraals in Amuru alone (May 2025) | 237 (set up by 131 herders) | Amuru District Security Committee |
Cattle evicted by July 1, 2025 | 3,119 heads | UPDF 4th Division, July 2025 |
Balaalo who sued government (2025) | Over 300 applicants | High Court, Kampala, June 2025 |
People potentially displaced by eviction | Over 10,000 | Nile Post, June 2025 |
Cattle affected by full eviction order | 400,000+ heads (est.) | Court documents, 2025 |
Districts affected by crisis | 20+ across 4 sub-regions | Presidential Exec. Order No. 2, 2025 |
CHAPTER 1
HISTORICAL CONTEXT AND STRUCTURAL CONTEXT
1.1 Who are the Balaalo?
'Balaalo' (also 'Balalo') is not a fixed ethnic label but a functional descriptor for semi-nomadic or migrant cattle keepers. Academic research published in the African Journal of History and Geography (Alidri et al., 2024) confirms that the group is heterogeneous: it includes pastoralists with cultural links to the Bahima tradition of Ankole, Ugandan Banyarwanda, and commercial cattle investors. More recent reporting including a 2025 Observer investigation notes that 'many link them to the Bahima of Uganda's Ankole sub-region, as well as Kinyarwanda-speaking communities from the DRC and Rwanda.'
Crucially, the term has no fixed ethnic content: as one Balaalo leader stated at the Kigumba meeting in June 2025, 'Balaalo means someone who follows their cows. So if Acholi own cows, they too would be Balaalo. This term should not be used to define or isolate any ethnic group.' This definitional ambiguity complicates both enforcement and legal proceedings.
1.2 The Colonial Land Legacy
Uganda's land challenges trace to colonial-era reforms that created four competing tenure systems: freehold, leasehold, mailo, and customary. In northern Uganda, customary tenure unwritten, clan-mediated, rarely registered dominates. Less than 20% of land in Acholi and Lango is formally titled. Colonial administrators never reconciled these systems, and post-independence governments perpetuated the gap between statutory paper rights and living customary governance.
A 2024 article in the African Journal of History and Geography further notes that historical displacement of pastoralists in 1964, 1973, and 1992 'rendered them a landless minority.' This history creates a dual grievance: northern communities feel their land is being taken; Balaalo communities feel they are reclaiming a right to land that the state has always denied them.
1.3 The LRA War and the Land Vacuum
The Lord's Resistance Army insurgency (1980s–2006) was transformational for northern Uganda's land politics. At peak displacement, over one million people lived in IDP camps in Acholi and Lango sub-regions. When communities returned after 2006, they found ownership claims unclear, parcels occupied, and records destroyed. Scholars at Makerere and Gulu Universities document a spike in land disputes in this period a vacuum that both commercial investors and incoming pastoralists moved to exploit.
The Balaalo migration intensified precisely in this post-conflict window: notable increases in settlement began from the mid-2010s onward, coinciding with the period of post-LRA land re-registration efforts, rising land prices in western Uganda, and opening of cattle markets in the north.
"The Balaalo crisis was not triggered by a single event or policy failure. It is the convergence of three structural forces: (1) post-war land insecurity in the north that created exploitable gaps; (2) land scarcity and commercialization in western Uganda that pushed cattle keepers outward; and (3) weak, politicized land governance that allowed elite-backed settlement to go unchecked for years."
CHAPTER 2
GEOGRAPHICAL SPREAD AND MIGRATION DYNAMICS
2.1 Origins and Entry Routes
Balaalo herders predominantly originate from Uganda's cattle corridor Kiruhura, Lyantonde, Isingiro, Lyantonde, Nakasongola, and Luweero districts where population growth rates in Kiruhura reach up to 3.64%, land subdivision has accelerated, and pastures have shrunk due to agricultural expansion. Security sources in 2025 confirmed that some herders also originate from the DRC and other neighboring countries.
Three primary corridors have been documented:
• Western route (dominant) :Via Hoima and Masindi into Nwoya, Amuru, and onward to Pakwach in West Nile. Trucks labeled 'FUSO' carrying large heads of cattle via Karuma Bridge characterize this route, which accounts for the majority of cattle now in Acholi. The UPDF 2025 directive specifies that all exiting cattle must pass through Karuma Bridge strictly confirming this as the primary chokepoint.
• Central Route: Through Luweero, Nakaseke, and Nakasongola into Lango sub-region. This explains the Balaalo concentration in Otuke, Kole, and Alebtong.
• Eastern Route(minor):Via Sebei and Karamoja borderlands into Teso. Less trafficked due to harsh terrain and insecurity from Karamojong armed groups.
2.2 Districts and Concentration
Sub-Region | Key Districts Affected | Estimated Concentration / Status |
Acholi | Amuru, Gulu, Nwoya, Pader, Kitgum, Omoro | 237 kraals in Amuru alone; ~102,200 cattle in Amuru (2025) |
Lango | Otuke, Alebtong, Kole, Dokolo, Lira | Significant customary land sales/disputes; growing kraals |
West Nile | Adjumani, Moyo, Yumbe, Madi Okollo, Terego, Pakwach | Cross-border cattle trade links; some compliance with 2025 order |
Teso | Kaberamaido, Amuria, Soroti | Seasonal grazing; lower-intensity conflict than Acholi |
2.3 Push Factors;Western Uganda
The following are the pressures drove herders out of traditional cattle corridor areas:
• Population growth: Kiruhura District records growth rates of 3.64% annually, leading to land fragmentation into plots too small for herd management.
• Agricultural expansion: Maize, sugarcane, and coffee plantations in western and central regions have converted large grazing tracts, displacing herders.
• Land commercialization: Skyrocketing land prices in Kiruhura, Lyantonde, and Nakasongola caused many pastoralists to sell small parcels and seek cheaper land in the north.
• Climate stress: Droughts, erratic rainfall, and overgrazing reduced water and pasture availability in the cattle corridor, forcing northward movement.
2.4 Pull Factors:Northern Uganda
1.Cheap, poorly documented land: Northern land under customary tenure appeared 'available' to outside buyers, especially where post-LRA documentation was poor.
2. Extensive wetlands and grasslands: The Aswa, Pager, and Nile tributaries, alongside large grasslands in Acholi and Lango, offered ideal grazing conditions.
3.Market access: Proximity to growing urban centres (Gulu, Lira, Arua) and the highly lucrative South Sudan cross-border beef and milk market incentivized large-scale settlement.
4.Post-conflict land vacuum: Returning IDP communities found some areas still under-utilized or ambiguously claimed, creating easy entry points for transactions with individuals bypassing clan authority.
CHAPTER 3
LAND CONFLICTS -CUSTOMERY VS.STATUTORY RIGHTS
3.1 The Land Tenure Gap
Uganda's 1995 Constitution and 1998 Land Act formally recognize customary tenure while establishing registration systems. In theory, this protects communal rights. In practice, the gap between written law and customary governance creates four critical vulnerabilities:
Undocumented rights: Because customary land is rarely registered, it is invisible to formal courts and investors.
Individual vs. clan authority: Under customary law, no individual can permanently sell clan land. But without documentation, courts cannot easily verify whether a sale was authorized by a full clan or just one opportunistic member.
Competing documents: Some Balaalo present lease agreements signed by individuals. Clans reject these as invalid, but courts recognize written contracts.
Government land gaps: Some Balaalo settled on ex-government ranches, forests, or conservation areas technically illegal but exploited due to absence of physical boundary markings.
3.2 Documented Patterns of Land Acquisition
Academic fieldwork (Alidri et al., 2024) and media investigations identify three acquisition models used by Balaalo:
Individual consent transactions: The most common pattern. A herder approaches a clan member (often in financial need) and obtains an oral or written agreement without full clan consultation. Clan elders later reject the sale, creating an irresolvable dispute.
Leasehold conversion: Agreements initially framed as short-term grazing leases are treated by Balaalo as permanent acquisitions. When communities seek to reclaim land, herders invoke the written lease.
Elite-brokered acquisition: The most protected form. Political figures, army officers, or investors facilitate land acquisition for Balaalo as proxies. This category is the hardest to evict. Uganda's Chief Justice Alfonse Owiny-Dollo stated in November 2023: 'We have discovered that these are the modern-day Balaalo 15 of your ministers and army generals' naming this category directly to President Museveni.
3.3 The Legal Grey Zone
LEGAL STATUS SNAPSHOT (2025)
Over 300 Balaalo cattle keepers filed a constitutional petition in the High Court in Kampala on June 25, 2025, challenging Executive Order No. 2. Their lawyers (Mwesigwa Rukutana & Co.) argue the eviction violates constitutional rights to property, fair hearing, and freedom of movement. Applicants include Franco Namanya, John Ssenyonga Gonzaga, Steven Bugingo, and others. The court documents confirm that 400,000+ heads of cattle could be affected. Courts have previously issued injunctions protecting herders with written agreements creating a cycle of eviction, court challenge, and return.
President Museveni himself questioned the validity of many transactions in Executive Order No. 2 (June 1, 2025): 'What type of land did you buy since most of that land is clan land? Did somebody sell you legitimately private land or was it family or clan land, fraudulently sold by crafty individuals?' The order also states it is 'technically impossible to have a healthy, mutually beneficial, and conflict-free movement of unregulated cattle into these areas,' marking a break from earlier rhetoric that distinguished between legal and illegal occupiers.
CHAPTER 4
DISTRICT-LEVEL CASE STUDIES NORTHERN UGANDA CONTEXT
4.1 Amuru District-The Epicenter
Background
Amuru is the most intensively affected district in the crisis. Even before the Balaalo issue, Amuru had been a land conflict epicenter due to the contested Amuru Sugar Works project (involving Madhvani Group) and the unresolved Lakang community land dispute. These earlier battles documented in multiple academic studies including Cambridge Core's 2017 analysis of Apaa evictions primed Amuru's communities to treat any new land acquisition with extreme suspicion.
By May 2025, Amuru housed 131 returned herders managing 427,000 livestock across 237 kraals (Amuru District Security Committee, May 2025). Atiak Sub-county alone had 106 kraals. This represents one of the densest concentrations of migratory cattle anywhere in northern Uganda. The Amuru RDC Geoffrey Osborn Oceng who co-authored the 2024 academic paper on the Balaalo factor confirmed these figures publicly while chairing the District Security Committee.
Conflict Context
Multiple violent clashes recorded 2021–2025, involving machetes, spears, and in some cases firearms where herders arrived with armed military relatives.
Post-eviction re-entry has been systematic: herders evicted under 2023 orders returned to the same sub-counties, citing court injunctions.
President Museveni noted in his July 2025 public statement that some Balaalo 'come with their armed relatives from the Army' when local customary justice attempts are made against them, making standard community dispute resolution impossible.
"This is a matter of governance. The President has issued a directive, and we are going to implement it fully as explained by the commander." Geoffrey Osborn Oceng, Amuru RDC, June 2025
4.2 Apaa (Amuru-Adjumani Boarderland) The Triple Conflict Zone
Apaa is Uganda's most complex land conflict site a disputed border area between Amuru and Adjumani districts that is simultaneously claimed by local Acholi communities, Madi communities, and Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) as part of East Madi Wildlife Reserve. The conflict has been ongoing, in various forms, since the 1960s (Bakaki, 2024, Makerere University Master's Research).
Commission of Inquiry:Established but Non-Functional
President Museveni appointed a Commission of Inquiry on April 3, 2023, to address the Apaa bloodshed. Parliament approved UGX 7 billion (approximately USD 1.9 million) for its operations. However, as of June 2024 one full year later the commission had conducted no visible fieldwork. Kilak North MP Anthony Akol stated publicly: 'I don't know how long the commission can take are they crawling? Are they moving on air?' Amuru LC5 Michael Lakony added: 'This is a small matter.' Both remarks reflect community fury at institutional inaction.
In June 2024, Kilak North MP Anthony Akol made a grave allegation on record: 'To make matters worse, even the UPDF involved in Apaa and the police are now involved in the land sale.' This echoes Chief Justice Owiny-Dollo's November 2023 warning that army generals are among the 'modern-day Balaalo' using herders as proxies to accumulate northern land.
Human Cost
Journalists who covered Apaa described a scene of 1,000 displaced residents in a small market, bodies transported in vehicle beds, and a communications blackout stretching 10 kilometers. Apaa had become a 'no-go zone' for journalists by 2023 due to the security threats from multiple armed actors (Radio Cominetu, 2023). Dozens of households were displaced in 2023–2024 eviction operations; human rights organizations documented beatings, home demolition, and food insecurity.
"The ghost of Apaa land conflict will live with me for the rest of my life, as a practicing journalist and as an advocate for humanity." Radio Cominetu journalist, August 2023
4.3 Gulu District-Cultural Identity and Urban Spillover
Background
Gulu, the largest urban hub in Acholi, combines active recovery from LRA displacement with rapidly growing land markets. Balaalo herders entered Gulu's rural areas in the 2010s, concentrating in Omoro and Awach sub-counties. The cultural stakes are highest here: Gulu is the seat of the Ker Kwaro Acholi, the Acholi traditional authority, which has made Balaalo eviction a flagship political demand.
Political and cultural response came up in ,Ker Kwaro Acholi declared that all Balaalo must vacate regardless of paperwork, arguing that individual sales of clan land to outsiders are culturally illegitimate regardless of written contracts. Gulu City Woman MP Betty Aol Ocan captured the political mood: 'If the President's order is ignored, the government risks alienating the Acholi people. Let Museveni be clear these herdsmen must leave our land.'
Gulu-based academic Professor Ogenga Latigo offered a more conciliatory note, suggesting peaceful coexistence was possible 'if Balaalo settled and integrated meaningfully with local communities.' His view, however, represents a minority position in current public discourse.In November 2023, photographs of a Balaalo confrontation with local leaders in Palaro Sub-county, Gulu, became widely circulated illustrating the extent to which the conflict had moved beyond remote areas and into Gulu's near-urban agricultural belt.
4.4 Otuke District -Wetlands and Lango Livelihoods
Backgound
Otuke, in the Lango sub-region, is ecologically significant: it hosts seasonal wetlands that are critical water sources for both farming and cattle, and its land has been resettled by communities displaced by past insurgencies. The overlap of herder and farmer needs over the same wetlands has made Otuke a flashpoint.
Documented incidence highlighted as ;
In November 2023, a confrontation in Otuke District between locals and Balaalo herders led to injuries and police intervention (TowerPost, June 2025)
Youth vigilante groups formed in 2022–2024 to physically expel herders, leading to retaliatory attacks and property destruction.
District officials frequently cite 'political pressure from above' as preventing firm action against elite-backed herders a pattern consistent across all affected districts.
IPC (Integrated Food Security Phase Classification) data from July 2024 placed at least 20% of the population in greater northern Uganda at 'Stressed' food security levels due to below-average harvests. While multiple factors contributed (erratic rainfall), district-level evidence consistently links Balaalo cattle crop destruction to intensified household food stress in Otuke, Alebtong, and Kole.
CROSS-DISTRICT PATTERN SUMMARY All Five case study districts share: (1) customary tenure exploited through individual not clan land deals; (2) elite political protection shielding large herders from enforcement; (3) a cycle of eviction, court injunction, and return; and (4) escalating youth-led vigilante responses where institutions fail. The variation lies in scale (Amuru/Apaa and Lamwo are most acute), overlay with other disputes (Apaa adds wildlife and boundary conflict), and institutional capacity (Gulu has stronger cultural voice; Otuke has less institutional support). |
CHAPTER 5
CROP DESTRUCTION,VIOLENCE AND EVVIRONMENTAL DAMAGE
5.1 Crop Destruction ,Scale and Mechanism
Free-range cattle grazing on crops known locally as 'okwonesa' (Acholi) or 'kwonesa' (Luganda/Runyankore) is the most immediate and visible harm of the Balaalo crisis. President Museveni elevated this term to national policy language in his July 2025 public statement, calling it a violation of patriotism and national unity.
The mechanism is simple but devastating: Balaalo herds, ranging from 100 to over 1,000 cattle, require large volumes of fresh pasture and water daily. Without fenced grazing and permanent water points on their own land, herds inevitably breach into neighboring farms especially in the dry season when cattle are driven to river margins, wetlands, and any remaining green vegetation. The result is entire harvests of maize, millet, cassava, and groundnuts destroyed overnight.
Amuru and Otuke district officials reported hundreds of acres destroyed annually (original report field data),Some families have abandoned cultivation entirely, migrating to towns to seek casual labor and compensation offers from herders, when made, are consistently described as 'token payments far below the value of the lost crop.
"We planted cassava to feed my children, but the cows came in one night and finished everything. Now we depend on food aid." — Widow, Otuke District, 2022
5.2 Violence :Documented Incidents
Location / Year | Incident | Outcome |
Apaa–Amuru, 2022 | Community crop protection patrols confronted Balaalo cattle | 3 youths injured by spears; 1 herder assaulted with machetes |
Nwoya, 2021 | Balaalo hired armed private guards; dispute erupted over gardens | Guards reported to fire live bullets; farmers fled their fields |
Oyam, 2023 | Community vigilantes retaliated against Balaalo property | 8 cattle killed; 2 homesteads burned in counter-retaliation |
Agago, 2021 | UPDF-assisted eviction operation | 40 Balaalo huts burned; women lost household property and livestock medicine |
Otuke, Nov 2023 | Confrontation between locals and herders | Injuries and police intervention recorded |
Gulu/Kitgum (various) | Anti-Balaalo protests | Live ammunition reported by human rights groups; injuries recorded |
5.3 Environmental Degradation
Acholi Paramount Chief Rwot David Onen Acana II used Uganda's World Environment Day 2025 (Nwoya District) to issue a formal warning about the environmental consequences of mass cattle grazing. He stated that large herds 'depending on the available resources could have a devastating impact on the soil and vegetation, leading to environmental degradation,' and faulted communities for 'carelessly giving away their land for large-scale cattle grazing without considering the potential environmental impacts.'
The environmental damage operates across three dimensions:
Overgrazing: Intensive grazing strips vegetation, triggering soil erosion, reduced soil fertility, and declining agricultural productivity on surrounding land. Uganda's wetlands have already shrunk from 15% of land area in 1994 to 10% in 2014 (NEMA, 2016), and degradation is costing Uganda approximately UGX 2 billion annually.
Wetland destruction: Balaalo cattle use wetlands as watering points. Overuse causes siltation, biodiversity loss, and drying of seasonal streams destroying fish habitats and dry-season water sources that entire communities depend on.
Wetland destruction: Balaalo cattle use wetlands as watering points. Overuse causes siltation, biodiversity loss, and drying of seasonal streams destroying fish habitats and dry-season water sources that entire communities depend on.
Deforestation at Apaa: Balaalo settlement at Apaa has involved clearing woodland for kraals and pasture, triggering alarm from Uganda Wildlife Authority and National Forestry Authority. Allegations of poaching linked to herder presence in wildlife areas have also been raised.
CHAPTER 6
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