Nearly a decade ago the government launched a disarmament programme to rid Karamoja of illegal guns that at the time were largely responsible for the mayhem in the region.

At the inception of the exercise in 2001, illegal guns circulating in Karamoja were estimated at 80,000 by the civil society organisations operating in the region

The government has since contested the figure of 80,000 saying the number was much less than it had been portrayed by the civil society organisations and insists that about 40,000 illegal guns existed in Karamoja before the disarmament exercise commenced.

The number of illegal guns in Karamoja, however, gradually increased, most of which, arguably by the local pastoralists, had been acquired from the neighbouring Somalia and Southern Sudan for protection of their herds of cattle against the hostile neighbours in Kenya.

"For long the Karimojong had suffered in the hands of the Turkana [from Kenya]. The situation forced the Karimojong herdsmen to acquire personal guns for self protection," Moroto District chairperson Peter Ken Lochap told Saturday Monitor.

Mr Lochap says although the government assured Karimojong pastoralists that they would be protected from their aggressors, the promise has not been kept.

He said this has been manifested in the manner in which, for the last four months, the region is gradually relapsing back to the past nightmares of the illegal guns menace that rocked the region two decades ago.

Since the beginning of this year there have been increasing reports of inter-ethnic clashes in Karamoja, an indication that insecurity caused by the presence of illegal guns in the region is still a big threat.

"People still live in fear, their safety is not guaranteed. People are still dying," Mr Lochap said.

While some communities responded to the call by the government to hand in the illegal guns, there are those particularly in northern Karamoja who failed to comply with the call.

For communities that heeded to the disarmament call, the army created communal kraals where their cattle would be protected by the UPDF.

"The [security] condition has been worsened by a recent UPDF decision to disband the communal kraals. What has happened to the protection the government promised us [in Karamoja]? We have given back the guns, we want protection," Simon Nangiro, the chairperson of Karamoja Miner's Association, told Saturday Monitor.

He said two renowned kraal leaders, Apalotwala and Ekori Alotinya Lokerumoi from Lopei and Rupa in Bokora and Matheniko Counties in Moroto, are some of the recent victims of a new wave of inter-ethnic clashes in the region.

The elders were killed in separate raids on their kraals by suspected cattle rustlers from the Jie ethnic group in northern Karamoja where recovery of illegal guns has not been very successful.

Mr. Nangiro said that protection of the local livestock pledged by the government has lessened from the time the UPDF suspended protection of the kraals.

Villagers have now resorted to keeping their valuables and food at nearby schools where safety of their belongings is more certain.

The UPDF on its part insists the disarmament exercise has been successful because Karimojong warriors no longer move in the open with guns.

The UPDF 3rd Division spokesman, Capt. Henry Obbo, says over 30,000 illegal guns have since been recovered across Karamoja and an estimated 3,000 still out in wrong hands.

He says the biggest number of illegal guns has been recovered from Bokora and Chekwi Counties in Moroto and Nakapiripirit districts respectively.

"Disarmament (in Karamoja) has yielded positive results. Our job is soon complete and the army might have to hand over law enforcement to Police," Capt. Obbo said.

He said what is going on currently in Karamoja is merely "dotted incidents of insecurity" that could occur in any other part of the country.

Recently the army deployed dogs trained to sniff out guns in Teso and Karamoja sub-regions.