A NATION BURDENED BY THE GHOSTS OF ITS PAST

Tourism: An Economic Staple

What attracts Tourists?

 

Uganda is richly endowed with natural beauty spread across wildlife, cultures, landscapes and water bodies. These include:

 

- 50% of the world's remaining Mountain Gorillas

- Over 1,060 species of birds, totally 11% of the global population of bird species

- 345 species of mammals

- 86 species of amphibians

- 142 species of reptiles

- 1,249 species of butterflies

- Over 600 species of fish

- Over 5,406 species of flora

- Source of the Nile River, the longest river in the world

- Lake Victoria, Africa's largest freshwater lake

- Mt. Rwenzori, the only mountain in the world with a snow cap on the equator

On Tuesday April 2, 2019, an American tourist, Kimberly Sue Endicott and her Ugandan tour guide, Jean Paul Mirenge were abducted by a group at gunpoint. Endicott was on a wildlife safari through Wild Frontiers, based out of Queen Elizabeth National Park in southwest Uganda. She and her guide were returned unharmed to a joint task force of the Ugandan security services and US military representatives on Sunday April 7. After a ransom of $500,000 was paid, the pair were picked up in the DRC, which borders the park. 8 suspects have been arrested in association with the kidnapping. It is unclear if the suspects were targeting Americans or foreigners in general.

 

While the park is generally regarded as safe for tourists, events like this do happen, especially along the borders where Uganda’s safari parks reside. It is events like these that burden the nation with misconceptions (m9). Although the acts of the gunmen were arbitrary, the tourist and her guide were not specifically targeted beyond being on a safari, this one incident will discourage who knows how many others from traveling to a country with a wealth of biodiversity not found elsewhere. Like its complex past, its present isn’t always well represented. It is incidents like these that harm a country still struggling to recover from years of political disarray.