Uganda: Land row over oil exploration areas

A stand-off between central government and a policy advocacy group, the Uganda Land Alliance (ULA), has alarmed national level civil society organisations but seems not to have affected work by grassroots organisations in oil exploration areas. According to a public statement by the ULA, the Minister for Internal Affairs, Hillary Onek, has demanded that the Alliance withdraw a report on ‘land grabbing’ and apologise to the government for bringing Uganda into international disrepute. Onek, the Alliance says, has threatened the group with closure if they fail to meet these conditions. The controversial report, co-published in September 2011 by the Alliance and the international development and campaigning NGO, Oxfam, alleged that the National Forestry Authority evicted some 20,000 people from farmland in Mubende and Kiboga districts, in order to award a concession to the UK-based New Forest Company.