Uganda is a relatively stable country in the middle of a very unstable area. With good infrastructure, there was no need for MAF to be based in Uganda, until Idi Amin and Milton Obote destroyed the country during their presidencies. Responding to the needs of agencies that were seeking to rebuild Uganda after Museveni restored stability in 1986, MAF based a Cessna 210 in Kampala in 1987. Our services have helped open up large areas of the country since the insecurity and devastation following the days of Obote and Amin.
Much of the southern part of the country returned to normality but the roads to the north remained extremely dangerous as bands of guerrillas continued to control various areas. It was complicated further by rebel activities within Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Surface transport became and remains incredibly dangerous during times of rebel activity and many people have been attacked on the roads.
In the last few years, rebel activity by the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) increased dramatically, leading to an increase in requests for flights particularly to and from Gulu and up to Kitgum, northern Uganda. The LRA, led by Joseph Kony, has a violent track record of abduction and murder. Many people have died and hundreds of thousands live in fear. Overland travel in the north, once difficult is now impossible. Peace talks, which began in July 2006, offered a ray of hope for an end to this 20-year conflict, but following several breakdowns in the talks, there is still no resolution.
In the far-west of Uganda, there are groups of rebels coming over from the continuing tribal based conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Travel in this region of Uganda is very difficult unless through flight.
Internal flights are concentrated on the west, north and north-east. We put particular emphasis on flights to the Karamoja region in the north-east as this is the most under-developed region and suffers from insecurity due to banditry and the effects of the LRA.
In 2003, operations extended to include cross-border flights into southern Sudan. These flights have become vitally time-saving for many key organisations working to rehabilitate and develop southern Sudan.
MAF in Uganda is registered as a non-governmental organisation (NGO) with permission to fly for churches, missions and other NGOs.
Operations are based from a small airstrip at Kajjansi, only 9 miles outside the capital, Kampala.
Key organisations MAF serves within Uganda
- Action Against Hunger (ACF)
- ADRA
- AMREF (African Medical and Research Foundation)
- Church of Uganda
- Far Reaching Ministries
- GOAL
- International Rescue Committee (IRC)
- Medair
- Mildmay
- Oxfam
- UNICEF
- ZOA (refugee and internally displaced persons care Netherlands)