Josephine Moyo, 38, returned to her village in Southern Sudan in January 2008 after a decade as a refugee in neighbouring Uganda. She spoke to IRIN about the challenges of being back.
“I am happy to be home but there are big challenges ahead. Lack of food is the biggest problem. We have been away since 1998, when the [Ugandan rebel] Lord's Resistance Army attacked – they killed two of my children and they wounded my husband and me.
"There had been fighting before, when the Sudanese government was attacking in the civil war, and then we would run into the hills and hide. But this time our village was burnt, and we couldn't stay, so we crossed into Uganda.
"It was very hard travelling through the bush, and life in Uganda was tough. We were provided with food, but it wasn't home. We were tired of being away. The peace came in 2005, but we wanted to see how things would be first before we returned.
"The challenge is getting food. We have planted a little but it was hard coming back again: there were the fields to clear after such a long time, and it also took a long time to make the huts.
“But we do not have the good tools or enough seeds to plant. We were given food rations by the UN when we arrived but that has all long gone.
"There are 20 of us in the family - my children as well as those of my sister-in-law who died in the war, others from my brother, who also died, and other relatives.
“So I am very sure there will not be enough food.
"How will we survive? We will get wild berries and vegetables to eat, and we can sell bags of charcoal or firewood to the passing trucks on the road. They stop to buy some: it's not much though. There is little here – no health clinic, but what we miss is food."
pm/mw
“I am happy to be home but there are big challenges ahead. Lack of food is the biggest problem. We have been away since 1998, when the [Ugandan rebel] Lord's Resistance Army attacked – they killed two of my children and they wounded my husband and me.
"There had been fighting before, when the Sudanese government was attacking in the civil war, and then we would run into the hills and hide. But this time our village was burnt, and we couldn't stay, so we crossed into Uganda.
"It was very hard travelling through the bush, and life in Uganda was tough. We were provided with food, but it wasn't home. We were tired of being away. The peace came in 2005, but we wanted to see how things would be first before we returned.
"The challenge is getting food. We have planted a little but it was hard coming back again: there were the fields to clear after such a long time, and it also took a long time to make the huts.
“But we do not have the good tools or enough seeds to plant. We were given food rations by the UN when we arrived but that has all long gone.
"There are 20 of us in the family - my children as well as those of my sister-in-law who died in the war, others from my brother, who also died, and other relatives.
“So I am very sure there will not be enough food.
"How will we survive? We will get wild berries and vegetables to eat, and we can sell bags of charcoal or firewood to the passing trucks on the road. They stop to buy some: it's not much though. There is little here – no health clinic, but what we miss is food."
pm/mw
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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