A total of 27,000 have been collected from Karamoja since the disarmament exercise started in 2001, the Parliamentary Committee on Defence and Internal Affairs, heard on Tuesday.

The State Minister for Defence, Ms Ruth Nankabirwa, explained the recovery programme to the committee from the year 2001 to present.

She said the security threat in the region has substantially been reduced since much of the gadgets were already destroyed.

"The impromptu attacks into the neighbouring countries and Ugandan districts have reduced. The highway robberies and cattle rustling have been contained," she said. Ms Nankabirwa said from 2001 to 2003, 16,000 guns were recovered. From 2004 to 2005, 1,100 were recovered, and in 2006, 3,936 guns were recovered.

She said 2,949 guns were recovered in 2007 and between January to June 2008, 1,459 were recovered while this month alone, another 1,556 guns had been recovered.

The Commander of theLand Forces, Lt. Gen. Katumba Wamala, said the Army would continue destroying the recovered guns to avoid them getting back in to the hands of the warriors.

"The price of a gun in Karamoja has shot from the previous Shs300, 000 to Shs1 million," Gen. Katumba Wamala said. "This has made it very hard for the people to buy more guns, hence the method helps us to reduce the repatriation of guns in the region."