Insecurity is creating turmoil in villages. In November the Telegraph visited Loyoro sub-county in Kaabong district, where Mr Lomoe is now a councillor. 

Locals gathered in the thin shade and discussed the three groups of intruders that stalk their lands: the elephants, that wander out of a national park and destroy their crops; the mining companies, that come with soldiers and drilling equipment to look for marble, limestone and gold; and now the raiders, who over the last year have stolen nearly all of their cows.

“People are hungry,” said Albino Lokodo, rising from his carved stool on rake-thin legs. He gave up his gun a decade ago, he said, but the government did nothing to protect his cows. “Everything that was here has been taken away.”

Nakienei Lokure, her shoulders draped in a tartan blanket, said the raiders had even stolen her saucepans and the materials she used for brewing sorghum beer, leaving her destitute.

The dusty roads that snake through the open scrub sometimes become impassable due to fighting. Aid workers hurry back to towns by mid-afternoon to avoid getting caught up in trouble.

Stealing to sell

Mr Lomoe, the raider-turned-councillor, said that raiding had changed since his day. He claimed that he and his friends used to steal cattle “for prestige and use it for dowry”, but “now it is just for survival… when they get cows they sell”.

The trade in stolen cattle may not be all that new – researchers were writing about it in the 1990s – but everyone from the army to local activists now agrees that it is a driving factor behind raids.

In its statement, the Karamoja Parliamentary Group alleges that stolen cattle recovered by the army are rarely returned to rightful owners and are instead transported out of the region, sometimes with military escorts.

“Even those who have been tasked with securing the lives and property of the Karamojong have chosen to become part of the escalation of the conflict, just because there is something they also walk away with every time a raid is successful,” the parliamentarians wrote.

Brig Gen Kulayigye, the army spokesman, agreed that “greed” was the main reason for the resurgence of raiding, with people “stealing cattle to sell”. But he said there was no evidence that soldiers were involved.  

The theft of Karamoja’s cattle continues a long history of external pressure on the region, as outsiders have tried to grab its resources and police its plains.

The British colonial government restricted access to Karamoja, while carving out vast areas for police posts, mission stations and game reserves. In the 1970s the military dictator Idi Amin ordered the people of Karamoja to abandon traditional dress. When some resisted, his soldiers shot them dead.