Karamoja sub-region, commonly known as Karamoja, is a region in Uganda. It covers an area of 27,528km and comprises Kotido District, Kaabong District, Karenga District, Nabilatuk District Abim District, Moroto District, Napak District, Amudat District and Nakapiripirit District. The region is projected to have a population of 1.4 millions in 2022 by UBOS. Geography In 2011, the Karamoja sub-region was the site of an important fossil discovery. Paleontologists discovered the remains of Ugandapithecus major, a 20-million-year-old ancestor of present-day primates. "It is a highly important fossil and it will certainly put Uganda on the map in terms of the scientific world," said Martin Pickford, one of the researchers involved in the discovery. History The region was ruled by the British from 1916 to 1962. Armed conflict As pastoralism and conflict are strongly interrelated, the integrated management of natural resources, like pasture, livestock and water becomes crucial. In terms of economic activity, the region depends on cattle keeping, mining, and trading in agricultural produce with neighboring districts. In mid-2006, as first reported by Inner City Press and then by The New Vision, the United Nations Development Programme halted its disarmament programs in Karamoja in response to human rights abuses in the parallel forcible disarmament programs carried out by the Uganda People's Defence Force (UPDF). There have been reports of atrocities and many civil victims of the disarmament, as army forces and nomadic warriors clashed. The disarmament campaign usually involves the UPDF surrounding manyatas (villages) and evacuating people from the interior, prior to orchestrating searches for hidden weapons. In September 2007, Human Rights Watch released a 97-page report detailing alleged torture and even killings of children. However, this report also acknowledged that the UPDF's high command was attempting to address discipline problems, partly by providing human rights training, which had, by the time of the publication date, lead to cordon and search operations becoming "markedly less violent." There were a number of significant clashes between the UPDF and nomadic warriors in 2010. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, said in June 2010 that at least 19 people had been killed in two incidents on 4–7 January and 22 January, when the army used a helicopter gunship and ground forces against warrior communities, before a third incident, on 24 April, which resulted in at least 10 deaths. She claimed that the death toll from all three incidents was, most likely,