Life is slowly returning to normal after leaving the IDP camps

Sep 30, 2007

TO an outsider it may seem like the middle of nowhere but its home to 1,017. <br>Olinga is tucked away in the lush green heartland of Acholi. A 40km journey to Pabbo, northwest of Gulu town in northern Uganda, will lead you to it. There, you take another ride on two bumpy roads and cross two muddy

By Moses Odokonyero

TO an outsider it may seem like the middle of nowhere but its home to 1,017.
Olinga is tucked away in the lush green heartland of Acholi. A 40km journey to Pabbo, northwest of Gulu town in northern Uganda, will lead you to it. There, you take another ride on two bumpy roads and cross two muddy rivers to reach Olinga, a decongested village set up in 2005 for the residents of Pabbo internally displaced persons’ camp.

“This place is far better than Pabbo,” said Gaetano Muto, 42, as he spread fresh harvests of millet and groundnuts all over a large compound in the scorching afternoon sun.

“This is real home. It’s clean. I can now dig and feed my family and sell the surplus,” added the father of five as he cracked open a groundnut pod, throwing its contents into his mouth.

On the road to Olinga, children were taking a dip in the streams, with dogs waiting for them on the banks. In the fields, men and women were tilling the land. It’s a scene that the older ones say reminds them of the past, before northern Uganda was plunged into war.
“That’s how it used to be. That’s how we want it to be. Life is slowly returning to normal,” noted Kusantino Nyero, 40.

It’s more than a year now since talks between the Government and the Lord’s Resistance Army rebels kicked off in the South Sudan capital of Juba. Within the same period there have been some positive developments in the region.
Three weeks ago, two Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camps were closed in Lango, one of the areas affected by the conflict, amid wild cheers from their former residents.

Carrying a hoe, Uganda’s state minister for disaster preparedness and refugees, Musa Ecweru, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees country representative, Stefano Severe and other officials knocked down walls of a hut at Otwal Railway IDP camp in Oyam district. This symbolised the hope that the 40 IDP camps in Lango will be phased out.

But as the hut walls crumble amid ululation from the excited former IDPs, there were indications that some were concerned about life after the camps. For where some of their homes once stood, are thickets and shrubs and the roads they once used are almost no more.
This is a common feature of northern Uganda; the result of being away from home for 20 years.

“We left our homes long ago. The first challenge for us when we get back to areas where our homes once stood is how to clear the land. That’s why we need equipment like spades, hoes, axes and pangas,” said Richard Obur, a resident of Palaro IDP camp in Gulu district. He plans to leave the camp in November, once grass used for thatching huts matures.
So how are the concerns of those leaving the IDP camps in northern Uganda being addressed?

“The Government asked UNHCR to help people return home. So far everything is going well. In Gulu, for example, there is now total freedom of movement,” said the resident district commissioner, Col. Walter Ochora, who is also the head of the district security committee.

In Pader, the LC5 chairman, Odok Wod Oceng, points out that the need for schools, water points and health centres are the key needs for those moving back to their villages. “We are grateful to all the partners who are helping us in the district. For example UNICEF is helping use with building classrooms. The other important thing that we need is access roads.”

The task of rehabilitating many of the access roads in northern Uganda is being handled by UNHCR and its partners. By the end of this year, it’s expected that 293.3km of roads will be rehabilitated in Gulu district alone. Another 187km will be rehabilitated in Lira, Kitgum and Pader districts.

“We are working together with district authorities and other NGOs to enable communities to access markets. We want children to be able to get to school. The roads will also be used by NGOs and district authorities in providing water and other services to the communities,” said Harry Leefe, the UNHCR chief in Gulu and IDP operations in northern Uganda.

Realising the need for accurate information as a necessity for the success of the return process, the UNHCR earlier this year contracted two radio stations to broadcast messages on the issue. On the programmes, the IDPs get the opportunity to ask district officials and regional authorities questions on health, education, security, roads and water. The interactive radio programme aims at ensuring that these issues are addressed with substantive action.

With the present flooding in eastern and some parts of northern Uganda, the task of addressing the needs of those leaving the IDP camps has become more daunting. It’s a challenge that the Government and donor agencies are already grappling with.

(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});