The Murchison Falls Conservation Area’s 5,072 square kilometers sit at one of East Africa’s most significant linguistic boundaries. Bantu and Nilotic language zones converge along the Victoria Nile, which is a rare occurrence.
An estimated 120,000 people live within 5 kilometers of the Murchison Falls National Park boundary. The park’s 3,840 km² perimeter cuts through four Ugandan districts: Nwoya, Buliisa, Kiryandongo, and Masindi.
Each district hosts distinct ethnic groups whose agricultural plots, grazing corridors, and fishing grounds abut the park’s gazetted edge.
The Victoria Nile divides the park into northern and southern sectors and serves as the primary water source for settlements on both banks.
The Uganda Wildlife Authority manages the park under the Uganda Wildlife Act 2019, which mandates both ecological protection and community benefit sharing across the park’s buffer zones.
Four ethnic groups hold territory on the park’s perimeter:
- South of the river, the Banyoro and the Bagungu occupy Masindi, Hoima, and Buliisa districts.
- North and northwest, the Acholi and the Alur maintain settlements across Nwoya, Amuru, Nebbi, and Pakwach districts.
These communities existed well before the park was gazetted in 1952. The conservation area now overlaps with land each group considers part of its historical domain. Understanding who lives around the park sharpens your reading of the region as a whole.
Ethnic Groups and Districts
| District | Primary Ethnic Groups | Park Boundary Position | Dominant Livelihoods |
| Nwoya | Acholi | Northern | Smallholder farming, livestock |
| Buliisa | Bagungu | Western (Lake Albert) | Fishing, pastoralism |
| Masindi | Banyoro | Southern | Agriculture, trade |
| Kiryandongo | Lango, Banyoro | Eastern | Farming, cattle grazing |
Acholi communities in Nwoya District
The park’s northern boundary runs through Nwoya District, where Acholi populations concentrate in the sub-counties of Purongo, Pajule, and Anaka.
Nwoya’s projected population reached about 133,500 in the 2024 national census estimates, with most people cultivating cassava, millet, and simsim on smallholder plots along the Nile’s northern floodplain.
Acholi settlement patterns in this area reflect post-conflict resettlement after the Lord’s Resistance Army insurgency displaced entire parishes in the 1990s and early 2000s.
Bagungu and Banyoro in Buliisa District
Buliisa District borders the park’s western edge along the Lake Albert shoreline, where Bagungu and Banyoro communities maintain fishing camps and cattle grazing zones.
The Bagungu, a Bantu-speaking group numbering roughly 90,000 in Buliisa, depend heavily on Lake Albert’s tilapia and Nile perch stocks and the seasonal wetlands that extend into the park’s gazetted boundary.
Their fishing grounds overlap directly with the park’s western limits, creating a persistent jurisdictional friction between UWA rangers and lakeshore communities.
Banyoro and Lango in Masindi and Kiryandongo
Masindi District to the south and Kiryandongo District to the east host Banyoro and Lango populations whose settlements cluster along the road corridors connecting Masindi town to the park’s southern gates at Kichumbanyobo.
Masindi’s population exceeds 350,000, and the parishes immediately adjacent to the park boundary report some of the district’s highest rates of crop damage from elephants and hippos moving out of the protected area.
The 1926 gazettal of Bunyoro Game Reserve and the 1952 national park designation redrew land access boundaries that had previously permitted seasonal grazing and fishing across what is now the park interior.
Colonial administrators relocated communities outward from the Nile corridor, establishing the settlement perimeter that persists today.
If you look at a district map of northwestern Uganda, the park boundary reads as a clean line. However, on the ground, it cuts across ancestral grazing routes and fishing access points that communities still reference in land use discussions.
Conclusion
Four ethnic groups, two language families, and centuries of settlement history converge within and around the 5,072-square-kilometer protected area.
As of 2026, the Uganda Wildlife Authority continues to negotiate access rights and revenue-sharing agreements with all four groups, and the outcomes of those negotiations directly shape how tourism operates on the ground.