UN northern data contradicts NGOs
Mar 31, 2006
UNITED Nations statistics got by The New Vision call into question the accuracy of a report on northern Uganda, released this week by Oxfam and over 50 other NGOs.
By Emmy Allio
UNITED Nations statistics got by The New Vision call into question the accuracy of a report on northern Uganda, released this week by Oxfam and over 50 other NGOs.
Between July and December 2005, 188 civilians were killed by the rebels of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) in northern Uganda, states the UN Department of Safety and Security in its six-month security report.
Most of the killings are directly related to LRA raids for food, targeting people heading to markets, according to the UN report. Of those killed, 59 were killed in Kitgum, 48 in Pader, 44 in Gulu, 21 in Lira and 16 in Apac.
This year saw even fewer killings. In the first three months of 2006, according to the UN weekly security updates, 33 civilians were killed: 19 in January, 10 in February and 4 in March.
These figures sharply contradict the figures released yesterday by Oxfam and over 50 NGOs in northern Uganda, including Care, Norwegian Refugee Council, Save the Children and International Rescue Committee.
In their report, ‘Counting the Cost: 20 years of war in northern Uganda’, drawn on statistics gathered during the last year, the NGOs claim that ‘the violent death rate for northern Uganda is currently at 146 deaths per week’.
This, the NGO consortium claims, is ‘three times higher than in Iraq’.
The release of the report comes at a time when UN Under-Secretary General, Jan Egeland, is visiting Uganda and deciding on further funding of the aid agencies.
Egeland arrived on Thursday and is to visit the north today. The report also comes at a time when the Ugandan government, supported by the UN, announced a major programme of resettlement of internally displaced persons (IDPs), now that security has improved and relative peace has returned to many parts of the north.
On the number of IDPs, too, the figures of the NGOs contradict UN findings. The NGOs put the IDP population at 1.8 to 2 million, while Unicef, in its Humanitarian Situation Report of July 2005, estimated the number to be 1.4 million. Since then, many people, mainly in the Lango and Teso regions, have returned home.
Of the 343,773 IDPs in Lira district, for example, more than half have returned to their villages, according to an assessment mission carried out in March by Lira district local government, together with Unicef, UNHCR, WFP, UNDP and UNOCHA. “All IDPs in Bata and Dokolo camps voluntarily returned home by August 2005,†states the March 2006 Assessment Report of IDP Return Movements.
“Overall, more than 55% of the population (in the camps visited) has partially or permanently returned to their villages,†the report concluded.
UNITED Nations statistics got by The New Vision call into question the accuracy of a report on northern Uganda, released this week by Oxfam and over 50 other NGOs.
Between July and December 2005, 188 civilians were killed by the rebels of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) in northern Uganda, states the UN Department of Safety and Security in its six-month security report.
Most of the killings are directly related to LRA raids for food, targeting people heading to markets, according to the UN report. Of those killed, 59 were killed in Kitgum, 48 in Pader, 44 in Gulu, 21 in Lira and 16 in Apac.
This year saw even fewer killings. In the first three months of 2006, according to the UN weekly security updates, 33 civilians were killed: 19 in January, 10 in February and 4 in March.
These figures sharply contradict the figures released yesterday by Oxfam and over 50 NGOs in northern Uganda, including Care, Norwegian Refugee Council, Save the Children and International Rescue Committee.
In their report, ‘Counting the Cost: 20 years of war in northern Uganda’, drawn on statistics gathered during the last year, the NGOs claim that ‘the violent death rate for northern Uganda is currently at 146 deaths per week’.
This, the NGO consortium claims, is ‘three times higher than in Iraq’.
The release of the report comes at a time when UN Under-Secretary General, Jan Egeland, is visiting Uganda and deciding on further funding of the aid agencies.
Egeland arrived on Thursday and is to visit the north today. The report also comes at a time when the Ugandan government, supported by the UN, announced a major programme of resettlement of internally displaced persons (IDPs), now that security has improved and relative peace has returned to many parts of the north.
On the number of IDPs, too, the figures of the NGOs contradict UN findings. The NGOs put the IDP population at 1.8 to 2 million, while Unicef, in its Humanitarian Situation Report of July 2005, estimated the number to be 1.4 million. Since then, many people, mainly in the Lango and Teso regions, have returned home.
Of the 343,773 IDPs in Lira district, for example, more than half have returned to their villages, according to an assessment mission carried out in March by Lira district local government, together with Unicef, UNHCR, WFP, UNDP and UNOCHA. “All IDPs in Bata and Dokolo camps voluntarily returned home by August 2005,†states the March 2006 Assessment Report of IDP Return Movements.
“Overall, more than 55% of the population (in the camps visited) has partially or permanently returned to their villages,†the report concluded.