Historical legacies and protracted conflicts in the Rwenzori sub-region of Uganda

Violence in Uganda’s Rwenzori sub-region is often presented as a series of separate security crises, including the Rwenzururu rebellion, the Allied Democratic Forces insurgency, recurrent clashes, and the 2016 royal palace attack. This article instead examines Kasese, Bundibugyo, and Ntoroko as a historically connected conflict system shaped by struggles over authority, identity, recognition, territory, and state legitimacy. Guided by Edward Azar’s Protracted Social Conflict Theory, the study applies a qualitative historical-analytical design and interpretive documentary analysis. Five recurring patterns emerge: identity-based exclusion, demands for cultural recognition and self-government, coercive state responses, contestation over symbolic authority and cultural space, and intergenerational transmission of historical grievances. The findings show that administrative reforms and security interventions have often contained violence without resolving its underlying causes. Durable peace therefore requires historically informed reconciliation, political inclusion, negotiated cultural recognition, conflict-sensitive governance, and socioeconomic measures that reduce the remobilization of inherited grievances across generations and communities.