Every December each year, cattle traders from all over the East African Community states flood Karamoja cattle markets to buy animals. However, with only two weeks left to Christmas, a move around cattle markets in Karamoja shows the lack of business due to the limited number of cattle.
Abraham Loi, a South Sudan trader told URN at Nadunget weekly cattle market on Monday that this year has been one of the most difficult years. “We burnt our fuel all the way from Juba to Karamoja thinking the cattle market will be full as usual but to our surprise, there are no animals,” he said.
Loi explained that they are trying to move around other livestock markets in Teso to see whether they can get some animals that they can take back to Juba so as to recover their expenses.
Waiswa Siraba, a cattle trader from Mukono said Karamoja has been one of the main regions where they used to buy animals especially when the Christmas season approaches. “We are wondering what has gone wrong, people are not selling animals,” he said. John Bosco Teko, a cattle trader in Kotido attributed the decline in animal sales to cattle rustling that has left the region with small population of livestock.
“People dont have animals anymore. All the animals have been finished by cattle rustling, so the few people who still have maybe 10 to 13 cows are not willing to sell them off,” he said. Dr. Sam Eladu, the Kaabong district Production Officer, says that apart from cattle rustling even the current drought has affected animal production.
He explains that several animals have lost weight while others have suffered miscarriages as a result of stress because of walking long distances in search of Water and pastures and running up and down during raids. Karamoja region has over the last three years suffered serious cattle rustling that has left the region paralysed.
-URN
