After years of instability caused by inter-clan cattle raiding and a decade-long military disarmament campaign in Karamoja, many people in the region have been finding alternatives to their traditional semi-nomadic pastoralist lifestyles.

Accidents often occur when unsupported tunnels dug by inexperienced miners collapse, trapping people inside.

[citation needed] Child labour is common, with minors under the age of ten often used to collect water for washing the gold.

[1] In 2009 Uganda’s government concluded an airborne geophysical study of over 80 percent of the country’s landmass to map mineral deposits.

[needs update] Although Ugandan officials have expressed hopes that mining in Karamoja will help develop this severely deprived region [4] local activists and inhabitants have expressed fears that the arrival of industrial extraction could destroy the precarious livelihoods of artisanal miners working at the Rupa site.