Northern situation improving, but IDPs still reluctant to go home

The security situation in northern Uganda has improved, allowing hundreds of thousands of internally displaced people to return to their villages, but many others are still apprehensive and see the camps as safer than home, the United Nations said.

At the launch on Tuesday of the 2007 Consolidated Appeal Process (CAP), where aid agencies are seeking US$296 million to support humanitarian activities in the region, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Activities (OCHA), noted that up to a million people would remain in camps in 2007, waiting for confirmation that it was safe to return home.

"This group will continue to deserve emergency assistance and [protection] to decrease the morbidity and mortality rates and incidents of human-rights violations," it noted. Women and children were particularly vulnerable to abuse and would continue to need emergency assistance and protection.

"Persons have moved out of overcrowded IDP [internally displaced persons] camps to start settling within their parish of origin, gaining access to more land and a more dignified life as they wait for sustained security that will allow them to go to their homes of origin," the appeal document said. "[But] lack of schools and health services in the new settlement areas is dividing families, as families choose to leave women and children in camps where they can access basic services. This exposes women, girls and children to increased risk of gender-based violence, abuse and exploitation."

Tarsis Kabwegyere, Uganda’s relief and disaster preparedness minister, who presided over the launch, said: "This year’s CAP should focus more on resettlement and recovery of the north, different from the previous CAPs where emphasis was placed on relief. In the Acholi sub-region, the security situation has greatly improved and preparations for emptying the camps are on course."

So far, at least 350,000 people have moved out of camps in Amuru, Gulu, Kitgum, lira, Oyam, Pader and Apac districts. However, the humanitarian situation required "emergency and broad protection assistance on the one hand, and return and early recovery assistance on the other".

In the eastern Teso region, about 130,000 people remained in camps with "little prospect of return due to continuing Karamoja-induced instability" – a reference to persistent cattle raids by Karamojong communities on their neighbours.

The funds will address protection and living conditions of displaced people in camps, support voluntary population movement and returns as well as humanitarian activities in the northeastern Karamoja region, and protection for refugees and asylum seekers.

Karamoja, according to the appeal, exhibited the most worrisome indicators - the lowest primary-school enrolment, highest maternal and infant mortality and the lowest life expectancy, compounded by continued insecurity and high levels of human-rights violations.

"The humanitarian community is encouraged by the ongoing peace talks in Juba [capital of southern Sudan]. Only peace and its dividends will guarantee the voluntary return of the displaced population to their homes, which is a shared desire for all of us," Martin Mogwanja, the UN Humanitarian Coordinator in Uganda said.

Talks between the Ugandan government and the rebel Lord's Resistance Army in Juba have so far led to a cessation of hostilities. Observers believe the talks, mediated by southern Sudanese Vice-President Riek Machar, provide the best opportunity for a peaceful settlement of the 21-year old conflict in northern Uganda.

vm/mw