Gulu | |
---|---|
City | |
Coordinates: 02°46′54″N32°17′57″E / 2.78167°N 32.29917°E | |
Country | Uganda |
Region | Northern Region |
Sub-region | Acholi sub-region |
District | Gulu District |
Elevation | 1,100 m (3,600 ft) |
Population (2014 Census) | |
• Total | 152,276 [1] |
Website | Official website |
Gulu is a city in the Northern Region of Uganda. It is the commercial and administrative centre of Gulu District. [2] [3]
The coordinates of the city of Gulu are 2°46'54.0"N 32°17'57.0"E. [4] The city's distance from Kampala, Uganda's capital and largest city, is 333 kilometres (207 mi) by road. [5] Gulu is served by Gulu Airport.
During the British Bagool rule in the 18th and 19th centuries, northern Uganda was less developed compared to the rest of the country. The people were conscripted into the army and the police, [6] with many sent to fight in the first and second World Wars. [7]
In the 1960s, many Sudanese, Rwandan, and Congolese refugees settled in the city. [8]
The Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) under the leadership of Joseph Kony sprang up in the 1990s after Auma/Lakwena went to Kenya. The LRA became increasingly violent in Gulu and surrounding communities. [9] Up to 15,000 children, known as "night commuters", were fleeing into the city for safety every evening. [10] In 1996, the Ugandan government ordered all civilians in northern Uganda to relocate to internally displaced person (IDP) camps. Several organizations, such as Stop the Genocide in Northern Uganda, called these camps "concentration camps" and demanded their immediate closure. At one time, an estimated two million people lived in these camps. In April 2009, all the IDP camps were closed and the people were allowed to return to their villages. [11] By July 2009, an estimated 1,452,000 people (80.7 percent of those living in the camps) had voluntarily left the camps to return home. [12] [13] [14] Since the spring of 2007, there has been relative peace in the region as the LRA became a much less significant threat.[ citation needed ]
Gulu's climate is tropical wet and dry (Aw) according to the Köppen-Geiger climate classification system. [15]
Climate data for Gulu | |||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
Mean daily maximum °C (°F) | 32.1 (89.8) | 32.3 (90.1) | 31.2 (88.2) | 29.3 (84.7) | 28.2 (82.8) | 27.7 (81.9) | 26.7 (80.1) | 26.9 (80.4) | 28.1 (82.6) | 28.7 (83.7) | 29.7 (85.5) | 30.4 (86.7) | 29.3 (84.7) |
Daily mean °C (°F) | 24.2 (75.6) | 24.6 (76.3) | 24.3 (75.7) | 23.4 (74.1) | 22.8 (73.0) | 22.3 (72.1) | 21.6 (70.9) | 21.7 (71.1) | 22.3 (72.1) | 22.5 (72.5) | 23 (73) | 23.2 (73.8) | 23.0 (73.4) |
Mean daily minimum °C (°F) | 16.4 (61.5) | 17 (63) | 17.5 (63.5) | 17.6 (63.7) | 17.4 (63.3) | 16.9 (62.4) | 16.5 (61.7) | 16.5 (61.7) | 16.5 (61.7) | 16.4 (61.5) | 16.4 (61.5) | 16.1 (61.0) | 16.8 (62.2) |
Average precipitation mm (inches) | 17 (0.7) | 32 (1.3) | 88 (3.5) | 164 (6.5) | 182 (7.2) | 146 (5.7) | 159 (6.3) | 217 (8.5) | 179 (7.0) | 185 (7.3) | 102 (4.0) | 36 (1.4) | 1,507 (59.4) |
Source: Climate-Data.org, altitude: 1116m [15] |
The national census in 2002 estimated Gulu's population at 119,430. The Uganda Bureau of Statistics (UBOS) estimated the population at 149,900 in 2010. In 2011, UBOS estimated the mid-year population at 154,300. [16] The 2014 population census put the population at 152,276. [1]
In 2020, the mid-year population of Gulu City was projected by city division as follows: Bar Dege (47,700), Laroo (32,300), Layibi (43,900) and Pece (53,500), for a total of 177,400. [17]
Year | Pop. | ±% |
---|---|---|
2002 | 119,430 | — |
2010 | 149,900 | +25.5% |
2011 | 154,300 | +2.9% |
2014 | 152,276 | −1.3% |
2015 | 153,800 | +1.0% |
2020 | 177,400 | +15.3% |
source: [1] [16] [17] |
Gulu is the home of Gulu University, which has a wide range of programs including agriculture, medicine, business management, and conflict resolution. It is one of the three public universities in the Northern Region, the others being Muni University in Arua and Lira University in Lira. Gulu University is the parent institution of the Gulu University School of Medicine, one of the nine accredited medical schools in Uganda as of February 2015. The Uganda Management Institute, a government-owned tertiary teaching and research institution in management and administration, has a campus in Gulu. [18] Gulu also hosts University of the Sacred Heart Gulu, a private university affiliated with the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Gulu. [19]
There are three hospitals in the city: St. Mary's Hospital Lacor, the Gulu Regional Referral Hospital, and Gulu Independent Hospital.
There is also a center for non-medical integrative therapies, Thrive-Gulu, founded by Boston-based professor Judy Dushku and her husband Jim Coleman, and part-funded by Eliza Dushku. It has received funding support from Irish aid agency Trocaire and a Scandinavian foreign aid provider. [20]
The city is served by Gulu Airport, which has a tarmac runway that measures 10,314 feet (3,144 m). Gulu Airport is the second biggest airport in Uganda after Entebbe International Airport. [21]
Gulu has a station on the metre gauge railway that connects Tororo and Pakwach, which had been out of service since 1993. Rift Valley Railways funded the clearing of vegetation and the repair of infrastructure, thus allowing the first commercial train for 20 years to run through Gulu on 14 September 2013. [22]
The home venue for Gulu United FC is Pece War Memorial Stadium, which has a capacity of 3,000 people. [23] The stadium was built by the British in 1959, with long-delayed renovations starting in April 2017. [24]
Predominant among the places of worship are Christian facilities for communities including the: Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Gulu (Catholic Church), Eastern Orthodox Diocese of Gulu (Patriarchate of Alexandria), Church of Uganda (Anglican Communion), Presbyterian Church in Uganda (World Communion of Reformed Churches), Baptist Union of Uganda (Baptist World Alliance), Watoto Church, Assemblies of God, [25] and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. [26] There are also Muslim mosques.
With loans obtained from the World Bank and KfW, the government of Uganda in 2020, completed Phase I of the Gulu Water Supply and Sanitation Project. The project required USh82.3 billion (US$22+ million) to be implemented. With the improvements, Gulu City has storage capacity of 42,000,000 cubic metres (1.1×1010 US gal) of potable water. In addition, at least 42 public toilets have been built, capable of accommodating 250 people simultaneously. A new sewage sludge treatment plant in Cubu has been constructed. [27]
Phase II of the project involves establishment of a drinking water intake plant, upstream of Karuma Hydroelectric Power Station, with pumping capacity of 10,000 cubic metres (2,600,000 US gal) daily. This new potable water source will supply 341,000 people in Gulu and neighboring communities. It also includes the expansion of safe sanitation services to 170,000 new customers. KfW and the CDC Group are expected to fund the second stage, starting in June 2021. [27]
Kitgum District is a district in Northern Uganda. It is named after its major town of Kitgum, where the district headquarters is located. It has suffered much fatalities and social disruption resulting from the 20-year civil war in the region during the late 20th century. The government moved tens of thousands of residents to internally displaced persons camps for their protection, where they were subject to raids by the rebels and also harsh conditions, including disease.
Lira is a city in the Northern Region of Uganda. It is the main municipal, administrative, and commercial centre of Lira District.
Moroto is a town in Moroto District in the Northern Region of Uganda. The town serves as the location of the district headquarters.
Hoima is a city in the Western Region of Uganda. It is the main municipal, administrative, and commercial center of Hoima District. It is also the location of the palace of the Omukama of Bunyoro.
Gulu Airport is a civilian and military airport in the Northern Region of Uganda. It is a designated entry and exit point in and out of the country.
Aboke is a town in the Kole District of the Northern Region of Uganda. It was the location of the Aboke abductions in October 1996.
Pakwach is a town in the Northern Region of Uganda. It is the main commercial, political and administrative center of Pakwach District. In the 19th century the town came under brief occupation by the Ottoman branch of the Khedivate of Egypt, as part of Hatt-ı Üstuva (Equatoria) Vilayet.
Koboko is a town in Northern Region of Uganda. It is the main municipal, administrative, and commercial centre of Koboko District. Koboko is also the hometown of former dictator Idi Amin who ruled Uganda from 1971 to 1979.
St. Mary's Hospital Lacor, commonly referred to as Lacor Hospital, is a hospital in Gulu District, Northern Uganda. It was founded by Comboni Missionaries and is administered and managed by Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Gulu.
Emmanuel Amey Ojara, MBChB, MMed Surgery, was a medical doctor, surgeon, and oncologist in East Africa. At the time of his death, he was a senior lecturer at the University of Nairobi, School of Medicine.
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Kibuye is an area within the city of Kampala, Uganda's capital.
Sir Samuel Baker Secondary School was an only-boys boarding middle and high school before it turned to a mixed school as of 2019, located in Gulu, Gulu District in Northern Uganda. The school is named after Sir Samuel White Baker, the British explorer, officer, naturalist, big game hunter, engineer, writer and abolitionist.
Omoro District is a district in the Northern Region of Uganda.
Betty Aol Ochan, is a Ugandan teacher and politician, who has served as the Leader of Opposition in Uganda's Parliament since 3 August 2018. She was appointed to that position by Patrick Amuriat, the president of Forum for Democratic Change (FDC), the largest opposition party in the 10th Parliament (2016–2021).
Koch-Goma, also Koch Goma, is a human settlement in Nwoya District, in the Northern Region of Uganda.
St. Joseph's College Layibi is a boys-only boarding middle and high school located in the city of Gulu, Gulu District in the Northern Region of Uganda.
Owiny Hakim is a Ugandan community civic educator and environmental conservation activist. He cycled about 650–655 kilometers from Uganda to Nairobi Kenya to create awareness about safe city cycling lanes onto Uganda's road network in 2023 and to further attend Africa Climate Summit 2023 in Nairobi, Kenya to discuss mechanisms for mitigating climate change. In 2019, Owiny walked to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia for two months covering a distance of 2,421 kilometres (km) to popularize Africa's agenda for 2063. He is also the 2021 Mandela Washington Fellow.
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