A community land rights defender who was kidnapped from his home and tortured by Uganda People’s Defense Force (UPDF) soldiers guarding Kiryandongo Sugar Limited has been arraigned before a magistrate court in Kiryandongo district and charged with threatening violence.

The Silverlands I portfolio, the continent’s largest agricultural investment fund, includes primary production and beef and poultry assets across South Africa, Namibia, eSwatini, Zambia, Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda and Mozambique.

The abduction of villagers is part of the wider use of violence orchestrated by the police who are working for investors including Great Seasons SMC Limited and it is linked to the community’s resistance to a land grab.

Great Seasons SMC limited, owned by a Sudan investor based in Dubai, is one of three multinational companies evicting communities off their land for agribusiness investments without any legal process.

Atyaluk David Richard is among dozens of community land and environment defenders in Kiryandongo who are under trial because of their resistance to illegal evictions by multinational companies.

The joint venture by Wilmar, Josovina Commodities and Bidco Africa Ltd is establishing its second palm oil project on Buvuma Island and targets to have 1,000ha under trees this year and 5,000ha in four years

Since evictions started in 2017, communities have faced acts of violence meted against them by multinational companies from sexual violence against women, torture, beating, kidnap to illegal arrest and detention.

Communities affected by land grabbing from different parts of Uganda have formed a movement to fight for food sovereignty while pushing back on land grabs by multinational agribusiness companies and individual investors.

In 2019, the government allocated 54 square miles of Maruzi Ranch land to Hillside Agricultural Investment Ltd under a 50-year lease, to be used for the establishment of Palm Oil production.

Oil palm growing in Buvuma district has faced slow progress due to irregularities raised by residents including delayed compensations and underpayments that discouraged Bidco Uganda to occupy its nucleus estate.

The defenders believe that the charges brought against them are linked to their human rights work of mobilizing and empowering communities in Kiryandongo to resist violent evictions by foreign agribusiness companies.

Two sugarcane companies have begun clearing thousands of hectares in disputed sections of Uganda’s Bugoma Forest. The National Forestry Authority (NFA) is challenging land titles granted to Hoima Sugar Limited and MZ Agencies, but a series of court defeats has forced the authority to remove its guards.