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Northern Uganda: Real Options for Returning Home
October 24, 2008 | Camilla Olson |
Displaced people in northern Uganda are slowly starting the process of returning home after two decades of conflict between government forces and the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), which forced over 1.5 million people to flee their homes. In June, I traveled with my colleague Melanie Teff to the Gulu, Kitgum, Pader, and Adjumani districts in northern Uganda to meet with displaced people and find out from them what the return situation is like. What we found was the need for real options for the displaced in the form of access to basic services and livelihood support but also in the ability to choose when to return freely.
Ojok, an 80 year old man who has been living in a displacement camp in Gulu district since 2002, told me he would go home tomorrow if someone could help him build a hut on his land. Most of the people in the camp where he is living have returned home or will be returning soon. However Ojok is disabled and cannot build a hut for himself and his wife. His former house was burned down by the LRA.
International donors, especially the US, should provide flexible and timely funds for recovery activities in the areas of return, particularly to improve access to basic services like water, health and education, but also to assist more vulnerable people like Ojok to rebuild their homes and their livelihoods.
While he stays in the camp, Ojok remains dependent on food rations from the World Food Program because he is unable to farm his own land. Many of the displaced people we met with continue to keep a hut in the camps in order to access those services that are not yet in the return areas. Others, like Ojok, have no choice but stay in the camps until they receive assistance to go back.
Building up services in home areas will help to incentivize voluntary returns, but donors must also be conscious of the need to continue providing basic services in the camps for those who remain, in order to avoid forcing people to go back before they are ready.
Even if the LRA were to return to northern Uganda and commit more atrocities against the local population (which many displaced people we spoke with feared given the current uncertainties around the peace process) Ojok told me that he would still want to go home – he doesn’t care about the rebels any longer, he just wants to live on his own land once again.
--Camilla Olson
Ojok, an 80 year old man who has been living in a displacement camp in Gulu district since 2002, told me he would go home tomorrow if someone could help him build a hut on his land. Most of the people in the camp where he is living have returned home or will be returning soon. However Ojok is disabled and cannot build a hut for himself and his wife. His former house was burned down by the LRA.
International donors, especially the US, should provide flexible and timely funds for recovery activities in the areas of return, particularly to improve access to basic services like water, health and education, but also to assist more vulnerable people like Ojok to rebuild their homes and their livelihoods.
While he stays in the camp, Ojok remains dependent on food rations from the World Food Program because he is unable to farm his own land. Many of the displaced people we met with continue to keep a hut in the camps in order to access those services that are not yet in the return areas. Others, like Ojok, have no choice but stay in the camps until they receive assistance to go back.
Building up services in home areas will help to incentivize voluntary returns, but donors must also be conscious of the need to continue providing basic services in the camps for those who remain, in order to avoid forcing people to go back before they are ready.
Even if the LRA were to return to northern Uganda and commit more atrocities against the local population (which many displaced people we spoke with feared given the current uncertainties around the peace process) Ojok told me that he would still want to go home – he doesn’t care about the rebels any longer, he just wants to live on his own land once again.
--Camilla Olson
Labels: IDPs, Northern Uganda
