The army has evicted hundreds of squatters from Queen Elizabeth national park, over fears that their cattle might spread foot-and-mouth disease to endangered wildlife.

The cattle keepers were chased out of Queen Elizabeth National Park, over the weekend amid reports they were also poisoning lions to protect their herds.

The tourism state minister, Serapio Rukundo, said the herdsmen were grazing their cattle illegally and that the number of tourists visiting the park, formerly one of the most popular in Uganda, had dropped sharply because the reserve was filling up with thousands of domestic cows.

Rukundo said local pastoralists had taken the opportunity to settle in the park when refugees fleeing Democratic Republic of Congo’s 1998-2003 war, trickled across the border into the area.

Rukundo also said that the troops found evidence supporting long-held suspicions the squatters were also poisoning lions.

One person was arrested after he was found with three lion skins.

Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II is expected to revisit the park — named after her during a 1954 visit — when she comes to Uganda for the Commonwealth heads of government meeting in November.