Tension often arises on abandoned African land concessions, researchers say, with landless people settling in the areas, only to be moved out when new owners acquire the land
Kiryandongo, Uganda — People came from all over Uganda to Kiryandongo, uprooted by disaster and dispossession.
Tensions often arise on abandoned land concessions in Africa, researchers and activists say, with landless people settling in these areas, only to be moved out when new owners acquire the land. One of the companies is Agilis Partners, a US-owned producer of grains and oilseeds, which received an award in 2019 from the US government for building “a thriving agriculture business in Uganda” that pays above-average wages and provides training for workers.
In 2013, a government team visited the area and concluded people should stay on the farms until the cabinet had made a final decision on the matter, according to a government letter seen by the Thomson Reuters Foundation. But Joseph Walekula, a leader in an association of former residents, said he received just 2.2-million Ugandan shillings from Agilis for his house, banana plants and eucalyptus trees — an amount he said was paid late and left people in “a desperate situation”.
“There has never been any kind of eviction of people,” said Wycliffe Birungi, a lawyer for Great Season, adding that the company had prevented people displaced by other farms from moving onto its land.
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