Kony War Costs Govt US$1.3bn
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The Monitor (Kampala)
November 7, 2002
Posted to the web November 9, 2002
Badru D. Mulumba
Kampala
International aid agencies have estimated that Uganda's civil war in northern Uganda has cost $1.33bn (Shs 2,460bn) in 16 years.
The aid agencies, including UK's Oxfam International, Care International, Danish branch of Save the Children Fund and World Vision mention the figure in a report they plan to hand to donors at the next donors' conference from Dec.11-13 in Kampala.
"Uganda has already lost $1.33bn on a seemingly endless war," says the report quoted yesterday by Deutsche Presse-Agentur (dpa). "It [government] must do whatever is necessary to resolve the conflict peacefully."
This money is the amount needed to treat 24 million Ugandans for the next six years, basing on the current expenditure on health estimated at between $11-12 dollars per person per year.
The 28 page report titled, "The Net Economic Cost of the Conflict in The Acholiland Sub-region of Uganda" has reportedly been drafted under the Coalition of Civil Society Organisations for Peace in Northern Uganda (CSOPNU) comprising the above civil society groups.
The war has reportedly cost $367m (Shs 660bn) in defence spending, disrupted incomes from crop production, reduced tourism earnings, increased medical costs, and led to diversion of donor funds to safer areas.
Uganda's defence budget is Shs 260bn a year.
"People have fled with the clothes on their backs and have lost all their worldly possessions," the report reportedly says.
The war has also reportedly left an estimated 23,520 people, including 12,320 civilians dead; this translated into an economic loss of $34m (Shs 62.9bn). It has also left more than a million people displaced and thousands maimed, according to the report.
"It [the document] is going to be part of the agenda when the civil society meets with donors at their discussion in Kampala. The civil society will see to it that one of the issues on the agenda is the conflict in the north," Ulla Strobech, director of MS Uganda is quoted saying.
Ulla Strobech confirmed the report when called on telephone last evening. She added that the report, the first of its kind was commissioned by more than 20 NGOs, both local and international. Two researchers were contracted to do the work, she said.
The Director for Economic Affairs Keith Muhakanizi said that he had not yet received the report. He said that if there is such a report, government would "definitely study and react to it."
According to the report, the war has reportedly also cost crops ($212m), tourism ($185m), and increased medical costs ($138m).
It has also led to loss of output due to ill health ($99m) and loss of livestock and incomes from livestock sales ($97m).
The report urges government to opt for peace to resolve the war.
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