Rainstorm leaves about 20,000 IDPs homeless

At least 20,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) in northern Uganda were left homeless after a rainstorm wrecked thousands of grass-thatched huts in their camp in the district of Gulu, relief agencies in the area said on Monday.

"Three people were injured while about four thousand huts had their roofs blown off when a strong storm swept through Pabbo IDP camp on Sunday evening," Coreen Auma of the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), said by phone from Gulu. "Three schools and a health centre had their roofs also blown while flying iron sheets injured two kids and an old man, who have since been admitted at the dispensary at Pabbo," said Auma, who coordinates the distribution of non-food items in the camp.

She said that some relief food that had been distributed to the people had been destroyed by water. Grains had been soaked and women at the camp could be seen on Monday trying to dry them.

Pabbo camp, situated about 400 km north of the capital, Kampala, is home to 62,000 people displaced by the 18-year old war between government forces and the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA).

The military spokesman in the area, Lt Paddy Ankunda, confirmed that "many huts were destroyed and thousands of people left homeless, but we are yet to get the actual figures".

Auma said that relief agencies were making the assessment on the ground and that NRC would move in on Tuesday to provide some tarpaulins because these were urgently needed. Male residents of the camp, according to Auma, were struggling to put back the roofs, but much of the roofing material of their huts had been destroyed.

In June at least 6,000 people were left homeless after a fire gutted parts of the sprawling camp, destroying hundreds of huts where the IDPs lived. Another fire in Pabbo earlier this year destroyed several thousand huts and highlighted the congestion in the camps, which has contributed to the poor sanitation there. The congestion has also resulted in a breakdown of social structures, increased crime, and alcohol and drug abuse, according to local authorities.