The Ugandan government is encouraging the country’s internally displaced persons (IDPs) to return to their villages following two decades of conflict in the country’s northern region.
The government has also earmarked up to 40 IDP camps for closure after their occupants returned home amid improved security in the region.
Of those returning home - an estimated 80 percent of those displaced were women and children - many face new challenges. Aida Amuge, 56, a former occupant of Otwal camp in Oyam district, about 300 km north of Kampala, is one such returnee.
"I was a farmer when I was displaced in 2003. I had my farms where we grew food for both our home and for sale. I had seven cows and 15 goats, but when the rebels passed through the village they killed many of our people. My daughter and my sons were killed and I remained to take care of four orphans. I lost all my belongings.
"We were eventually asked to move to the camps. Camp life was very hard. Many people died of malaria and diarrhoea while other people died of hunger-related illnesses. I lost my seven cows and 15 goats so I had no livelihood to speak of.
"I could not pay school fees for my grandchildren. Camp life destroyed the morals of our children and I am finding it difficult to control them.
"I went back to the village in March and planted some food crops, but the floods have destroyed them and I have had to start from scratch. We are just here waiting [to see] if the government will come in to help us. We have put up some structures for the huts, but as an old woman, I cannot find grass for thatching the huts.
"Our main problem now is that the dispensary we have at Otwal Health Centre has no drugs. There is no water. In the camps there were bore holes and we accessed water in a more organised way. But in the villages, even the wells that were there have since been destroyed by the floods.
"We need help. We need mosquito nets because the floods have increased the risk of malaria. We need utensils and other household items to be able to live a better life.
"We need farm tools. Most of us are too weak to be using hand hoes to dig. We need ox-drawn ploughs and oxen. We need more health services. We need to return to our lives in our homes that were destroyed. I wish the government and the international community could have programmes to help us return to our homes."
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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
