The United Nations refugee agency, UNHCR, said on Wednesday it expected another 300,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) in northern Uganda to return to their villages by the end of 2006 if the calm that has prevailed in the region for much of this year continues.
"So far, 300,000 of the IDPs have returned home," Roberta Russo, spokeswoman for the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, said from Kampala, the Ugandan capital.
For the past two decades, northern Uganda has been ravaged by war between the government and a home-grown rebel movement, the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA). The movement has been accused of atrocities against civilians and causing about two million people to flee to sprawling and crowded settlements where the government offered them army protection.
Peace talks between the government and the LRA are continuing in the southern Sudanese city of Juba, and a truce signed between the parties in August has largely held in northern Uganda.
Meanwhile, the government is trying to bolster security in the country's northern villages as the IDPs return.
Police spokesman Patrick Onyango said up to 1,700 policemen had been deployed to the region, but that another 3,300 were needed to re-establish civil law and order as troops, deployed there against the rebels, leave.
Two-thirds of the IDPs who have returned have gone back to Lira District, where relative calm has prevailed for longer, Russo said.
She said the UNHCR was helping the government to rehabilitate police hardware, such as radio sets, and providing newly deployed police officers with bicycles and motorcycles to ease their transport problems. So far, she said, the agency had distributed 40 motorcycles and 1,000 bicycles that have been shared between Lira and Gulu District. Police are also undergoing human-rights training.
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"So far, 300,000 of the IDPs have returned home," Roberta Russo, spokeswoman for the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, said from Kampala, the Ugandan capital.
For the past two decades, northern Uganda has been ravaged by war between the government and a home-grown rebel movement, the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA). The movement has been accused of atrocities against civilians and causing about two million people to flee to sprawling and crowded settlements where the government offered them army protection.
Peace talks between the government and the LRA are continuing in the southern Sudanese city of Juba, and a truce signed between the parties in August has largely held in northern Uganda.
Meanwhile, the government is trying to bolster security in the country's northern villages as the IDPs return.
Police spokesman Patrick Onyango said up to 1,700 policemen had been deployed to the region, but that another 3,300 were needed to re-establish civil law and order as troops, deployed there against the rebels, leave.
Two-thirds of the IDPs who have returned have gone back to Lira District, where relative calm has prevailed for longer, Russo said.
She said the UNHCR was helping the government to rehabilitate police hardware, such as radio sets, and providing newly deployed police officers with bicycles and motorcycles to ease their transport problems. So far, she said, the agency had distributed 40 motorcycles and 1,000 bicycles that have been shared between Lira and Gulu District. Police are also undergoing human-rights training.
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This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions
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