Internally displaced head homeward

Aug 29, 2006

WITH the conflict in Northern Uganda in its dying days, displaced people are looking forward to returning home.

By Joe Nam

WITH the conflict in Northern Uganda in its dying days, displaced people are looking forward to returning home.

At the height of the conflict in 2004, two million people were displaced. Over half of them, especially in Teso and Lango have since returned home.

“The Government is working with donor agencies to effect a successful decongestion of camps,” said Musa Ecweru, the Minister of Disaster Management.

After a trip to Northern Uganda, National NGO Forum Head Warren Nyamugasira said, “We will step up advocacy for the North. From our on the spot assessment in Gulu and Pader districts recently, we have identified a number of issues that need to addressed. The most urgent is the provision of seeds and kits for agriculture and security.”

Civil Society Capacity Building Programme manager Kees Groenendijk says his office is studying ways on how to tackle the post-conflict era in Northern and Eastern Uganda.

In cooperation with the Uganda government, the UN system and other donors, like the German government, have stepped up the support for returning IDPs to their homes in Teso and Lango.

Aid worth sh6.5b has been availed for this purpose. It targets IDPs who volunteer to go home and those who are the most vulnerable such as child-headed households, single mothers and the elderly. It is used to deliver seeds and tools to them as well as drilling and rehabilitating boreholes and providing sanitation.

German Ambassador Alexander Muhlen pledged that German support will continue into 2007.

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