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Wishing for a new start: Experiences of Return and Resettlement in one IDP Camp of Northern Uganda

12 Feb 2007 16:15:00 GMT
Source: Association of Volunteers in International Service (AVSI) - Italy
Valentina Frigerio

Website: Website: http://www.avsi.org / www.avsi-usa.org

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The area in front of the Omiya Anyima sub-county council is large enough to host a soccer match. Children are playing with a small ball made out of pieces of plastic bags and rags. School has not yet started, but this year will be no different than the last: the children will study in the same displaced school of the IDP camp. Luckily, AVSI has been able to rehabilitate some blocks of the old school building in Lupur so at least the children will be able to learn in a safer environment. Omiya Anyima is found in the district of Kitgum, in Northern Uganda, where a violent civil war between the government and the rebel group of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) has disrupted the life of its population for 20 years. Omiya Anyima is also home to one of the 200 camps for internally displaced people, where 90% of the population of Northern Uganda has lived for years with poor health and sanitation conditions.

"Give me my sim-sim" is the translation of the name Omiya Anyima. "The sub-county was famous in the past for the productivity of its soil," explains Robert Obwona, a staff person of AVSI Kitgum. "Today the people are instead relying on external aid in order to survive, and cannot boast anymore about their sim-sim".

On top of the already difficult living conditionspoverty, lack of quality education, lack of health servicesthe IDP camp at Omiya Anyima was recently hit by cholera. Since April 2006, more than 1,650 cases of cholera have been registered in Kitgum district, with a fatality rate of 1.8%. In Omiya Anyima, 66 cases were recorded. "Together with AVSI, we built up the CTC (Cholera Treatment Centre) and we managed to control the spread of the disease", says the director of the local health centre. "Very important to our success was the hygiene promotion effort in the community, informing people on how to control the spread of the disease. In the last two weeks, in fact, we did not register any new cases".

The political situation took a few positive steps towards the end of 2006, starting with the signing of a truce between the LRA and the government of Uganda which led into peace talks. The rebels moved from Uganda to two camps in Southern Sudan where the peace talks were taking place. As a result, people in the IDP camps were advised to move to sites closer to their villages of origin, where presumably they have better access to land with security. This movement of peoples took place to some extent in the Teso and Lango regionsdata show that 450,000 IDPs are now in their villagesthe situation for the 1.2 million displaced in Acholiland has not changed.

At Omiya Anyima, some families have decided to follow the government's suggestion of building new residential sites outside of the camps, but along the main roads where the Uganda People's Defence Force (UPDF) is able to provide adequate security. Others, on the other hand, are not moving at all. "We want to wait until we are able to go back to our village, and not to another IDP camp," says Abalo Margaret. "From my house here I can see our plot, at the foot of the hill down there," she says indicating a certain piece of land. "I am dreaming of the day when I will be there again." Opira, instead, is more pessimistic. "Home? Where could I go? I am 60 years old now. I do not even have the strength to build a new hut. Let me stay here in the camp, now that I am used to this kind of life."

"The elderly and disabled are among the most vulnerable in the returning process", says Filippo Ortolani, AVSI Emergency Coordinator for Kitgum and Pader. "In our assessment and monitoring of the population moving out of the IDP camps, we are focusing on them so that they are not left behind." AVSI, with support from UNHCR, plans to open bases in some IDP camps in Gulu, Kitgum and Pader, with one in Omiya Anyima. "This will allows us to be closer to the people and better monitor the resettlement process."

Recently, the peace talks have stopped due to a decision from the LRA to withdraw, claiming that Juba, in southern Sudan where the peace talks were taking place, was not safe or neutral anymore. With the peace talks stalled, the future of the millions of people still confined to the camps hangs in the balance.

On the way back to Kitgum town, new building is taking place in satellite sites. The huts are not so congested now, and people live closer to their lands where they can farm more freely. It seems that the people of Acholiland are willing to fight for a fresh start, showing their resilience after years of being forced into a lifestyle not of their choosing. Some simple chapels along the road between one camp and the next display fresh paint and other signs of renewed attention and concern; hardly seen for years due to the high grass covering their surface, the chapels are now visible from the road, just waiting for people to fill them again.

[ Any views expressed in this article are those of the writer and not of Reuters. ]

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Last updated:Mon Feb 12 16:19:54 2007