posted on 2024-09-05, 20:42authored byMelissa Parker, Moses Baluku, Bono E. Ozunga, Bob Okello, Peter Kermundu, Grace Akello, Hayley MacGregor, Melissa Leach, Tim Allen
The UN Security Council’s response to Ebola in 2014 legitimised militarised responses. It also influenced re-
sponses to COVID-19 in some African countries. Yet, little is known about the day-to-day impacts for ordinary
citizens of mobilising armies for epidemic control. Drawing on 18 months ethnographic research, this article
analyses militarised responses to COVID-19 during, and following, two lockdowns at contrasting sites in Uganda:
a small town in Pakwach district and a village in Kasese district. Both field sites lie close to the border of the
Democratic Republic of Congo. Although the practice of health security varied between sites, the militarised
response had more impact than the disease in these two places. The armed forces scaled back movement from
urban conurbations to rural and peri-urban areas; while simultaneously enabling locally based official public
authorities to use the proclaimed priorities of President Museveni’s government to enhance their position and
power. This led to a situation whereby inhabitants created new modes of mutuality to resist or subvert the
regulations being enforced, including the establishment of new forms of cross-border movement. These findings
problematise the widely held view that Uganda’s response to COVID-19 was successful. Overall, it is argued that
the on-going securitisation of global health has helped to create the political space to militarise the response.
While this has had unknown effects on the prevalence of COVID-19, it has entrenched unaccountable modes of
public authority and created a heightened sense of insecurity on the ground. The tendency to condone the violent
practice of militarised public health programmes by international and national actors reflects a broader shift in
the acceptance of more authoritarian forms of governance.
Funding
Default funder
History
Publisher
Elsevier
Citation
Parker, M.; Baluku, M.; Ozunga, B.E. Et al (2022) 'Epidemics and the Military: Responding to COVID-19 in Uganda', Social Science & Medicine Journal, Volume 314, 2022, DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2022.115482