In Summary
In spite of a ranking by leading global travel website, Lonely Planet, some countries have travel advisories warning their citizens not to travel to Uganda’s leading destinations like Bwindi Impenetrable Forest National Park, Mgahinga Gorilla National Park, Queen Elizabeth National Park and Murchison Falls National Park. While some of the warnings in the advisories are legitimate, according to tourism officials, a significant number of them are hopelessly out of touch with reality and are, in the process, likely to stop some tourists from visiting the country.
Murchison Falls National Park, which sits astride the River Nile and straddles Masindi, Buliisa and Gulu Districts in north-western Uganda, boasts of a diversity of wildlife that makes one feel as if God himself had tourism in mind when placed his creation in this vast array of sub-Saharan greenery.
During a November 25-27, 2011 visit to Murchison Falls with a group of tourists from more than a dozen countries around the world, I could not help but marvel at the amazing number of spectacular sights parked inside the park’s 3,480 kilometres.
On the way to the Red Chilli camping site deep inside Murchison Falls, we drove past the thick Budongo Forest, beautifully uniform shrubs, short vast savannah grass, and a fascinatingly spell-binding rift valley escarpment. Towards the end of the day, we were treated to an evening boat ride along the River Nile that enabled us to see elephants up-close, hippopotami peeping from the water, crocodiles lying idly on the shore, white cattle egrets flying in unison just above the water and the golden shine of the sun on the Nile waters just before it went to sleep.
After nightfall, our group camped in a clearing surrounded by intricately weaved shrubs and trees – with no security guards in eyesight. And in a series of scenes that could easily have been picked from Noah’s Ark or even the Garden of Eden itself, we ate our supper while looking at warthogs and the otherwise scary hippopotami quietly grazing in the same compound.
It was during that evening rendezvous – when the foreign tourists were comparing notes about some of their finest experiences at Murchison Falls – that I first introduced the subject of travel advisories written by foreign missions for visitors to Uganda. Just weeks after readers of leading global travel website, Lonely Planet, voted Uganda as the top destination for 2012, some of the travel advisories warn their citizens not to travel to nearly two-thirds of the country.
Advisory alarms
The advisory issued by the Australian government warns its citizens to exercise a high degree of caution while in Uganda “because of the high threat of terrorist attack, civil unrest and criminal activity.” It also advises people to exercise caution when travelling to some of Uganda’s leading national parks.
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“We advise you to reconsider your need to travel to Uganda’s border with the DRC, including the Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, the Mgahinga Gorilla Park, and the Murchison Falls National Park because of the risk of banditry and attacks by rebel groups,” says the advisory, which was last updated November 10, 2011.
“We also strongly advise you not to travel to the Karamoja region of north-eastern Uganda, including Kidepo National Park, because of the risk of banditry and inter-tribal clashes. If you decided to visit the Kidepo National Park we recommend you fly there rather than travel overland.”
The travel advisory from New Zealand says “there is extreme risk to your security in the south-western border area shared with the Democratic Republic of the Congo (including the Bwindi Impenetrable National Park and Mgahinga Gorilla Park), due to banditry and cross-border attacks by rebel groups and we advise against all travel to this area. We expressly advise New Zealanders against taking gorilla trekking tours in this area that cross into the DRC.”
In its advisory, which the government website says was last reviewed on July 28, 2010, but which remains in use to-date, New Zealand also says, “there is extreme risk to your security in the north-western Uganda (Nebbi, Arua, Yumbe, Moyo, Adjumani, Gulu, Apac, Lira, Kitgum and Pader districts) and areas bordering Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), including Lake Albert and Murchison Falls National Park, and we advise against all travel to these areas. Banditry and attacks and abductions by rebel groups, including the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), pose a significant risk to your safety in these areas.”
While part of Murchison Falls National Park was closed to tourists during the two-decade war between the Uganda government and the LRA, the rebel group has not set foot in Uganda since 2006 when they camped thousands of kilometres away at the Garamba Forest in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Recent reports say the LRA has moved as far as the Central African Republic. They have not been considered a risk for such a long time that nearly all Ugandans in the north who had run away from their homes to IDP camps to escape have since returned.
Officials working in tourism-related areas say while the travel advisories offered by many countries are useful as a tool for preparing tourists coming into the country, some of them are not up-to-date.
“When people talk about northern Uganda being a place you can’t go to, it is understandable how foreign governments feel and their need to provide as much information as possible to their nationals, but it is also important that they realise that some of those advisories are unnecessarily misleading because northern Uganda is not what it was five years ago. It is much, much better,” said Mr Lilian Nsubuga, the Spokesperson for the Uganda Wildlife Authority.
Commenting on the classification of other leading national parks as no-go areas, Ms Nsubuga added, “What is a cause of concern for us is where Australia and New Zealand, which know nothing about us, say don’t go to Bwindi and Mgahinga. It is obvious that these people need education (about Uganda). By giving such false information, they are denying their citizens a chance to enjoy this beautiful country.”
Ms Nsubuga said northern Uganda, which was ravaged by the LRA war, has been the fastest growing tourism area in the country since the return of peace in 2006. “Five and a half years since (LRA leader Joseph) Kony was removed from Uganda’s borders, northern Uganda has become a gem for tourism to the extent that this year, all the celebrations relating to World Tourism Day were done in Gulu. And even then, Murchison Falls, most of which falls in northern Uganda, has taken over as one of the main revenue earners for Uganda Wildlife Authority. That shows that it is such a popular area for tourists now – both local and foreign,” she said.
by Joseph
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