Uganda
Uganda, officially the Republic of Uganda, is a landlocked country in East Africa, bordered by South Sudan to the north, Kenya to the east, Tanzania to the south, Rwanda to the southwest and the Democratic Republic of Congo to the west. The borders with Kenya and Tanzania run partly through Lake Victoria.
The official languages are English and Swahili, in the autonomous kingdom of Buganda also Luganda. A total of 43 different languages are spoken in Uganda.
Uganda became independent from the United Kingdom in 1962. From 1966 to 1986, under the governments of Milton Obote and Idi Amin, the country was characterised by an authoritarian style of government, violence, severe human rights violations, civil war-like conditions and economic decline. Under Idi Amin, all inhabitants of Asian descent were expelled from the country. Since 1986, the country has been ruled by Yoweri Kaguta Museveni. Under his government, too, there were human rights violations and involvement in internal military conflicts in neighbouring countries, but a certain calming down and economic recovery set in. The south of the country is now again popular with tourists, while the northern border provinces are still subject to travel warnings by foreign missions, even though there have been no attacks on foreigners since 1999.
Uganda is characterised by lakes, the White Nile, primeval forests and savannahs. The equator runs through the south of the country. The lowest point in Uganda is the lower course of the Albert Nile at about 610 m above sea level (Lake Albert 621 m above sea level). Margherita Peak (also: Mount Stanley) in the Rwenzori Mountains as the highest point is 5,110 m high. Both extreme points are relatively close to each other. The total area of the country is 241,038 square kilometres, of which 199,710 square kilometres is land area and 36,330 square kilometres is water area. The north-east of Uganda is semi-arid.
Important raw materials in the country are copper, cobalt, limestone, nickel and rock salt. Hydropower and land that can be used for agriculture are further resources. In 2009, large deposits of oil and natural gas were discovered in Uganda. The proven reserves amount to at least 700 million barrels of oil.
The tropical climate in the south and centre of the country is influenced by the fact that most of Uganda lies on a plateau around 1,000 m above sea level. The climate is tropical-warm, but cooled down considerably due to the high altitude. Therefore, it is neither excessively hot nor particularly cold. Temperatures fluctuate between 25 and 30 °C during the day, at night it is usually around 17 °C. The extremes are between 10 and 35 °C. Rainfall (1000-1500 mm) used to be distributed throughout the year, with only two drier periods (December to February and June to August). In the meantime, however, there are regions in Uganda, especially in the north, where it does not rain for years, while the rest of the formerly tropically humid country is increasingly becoming monsoon independent and has only one rainy season.