Living in Camps

One and half million people were moved into what have come to be known as “mother camps” between 1997 and 2003 for their protection and to undermine support for the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) that has been waging war against the Ugandan government for the last 20 years.

As security has improved over the last 8 months, the government is encouraging people to participate in the “decongestion” campaign and move to satellite camps closer to their original homes.

In spite of continuing feelings of insecurity, many people are very eager to move to the satellite camps. The mother camps were very cramped, and provided people with few opportunities to sustain themselves, since it was too dangerous for them to travel too far outside the camps to cultivate or conduct business activities. Thus, the international community along with the government had to provide food, and basic services such as water, sanitation facilitations and education, schooling and health services. Still, the proximity of the huts, the lack of privacy and the idleness led to many problems, such as the spread of disease, increase in alcoholism, difficulty in controlling children’s behavior, and an increase in divorce rates, among others.

In every satellite camp we went to there were new huts being constructed all over. There was a palpable feeling of joy for those re-starting their lives close to home. And yet their optimism is cautious.

There are two main reasons why people still feel insecure: the peace talks with the LRA are uncertain. In addition, the Karamajong, a fierce nomadic people in the east of Uganda and known for cattle rustling, have been attacking the Acholi communities, stealing livestock, beating people up, and sometimes raping and killing as well. The displaced in mother and satellite camps rely on soldiers from the national army to protect them and the few livestock they have, and many still do not feel they can go back to cultivating their family fields yet.

FH is distributing seeds and tools for those who will be able to plan next season, as well as continuing to provide water and sanitation facilities in a number of satellite camps.

Northern Uganda and the LRA

The north of Uganda has been in war for about 20 years. The Lord’s resistance army (LRA) has been fighting against the government, but also against its own people, without having a real cause.

One of the tactics of the LRA has been to abduct children and indoctrinate them, forcing them to kill. Abducted girls are given to LRA soldiers as wives, and many of then have born children. They are referred to as child mothers. The abductions gave rise to the night commuter phenomenon, documented so well by “Invisible Children”: children walking several kilometers from the villages to the main town to sleep on verandas, bus parks and any other place they can find to avoid being abducted.

Over the last few months, the LRA and the government of Uganda have been negotiating a peace deal. The negotiations broke down in January and there are efforts to restart them.

And yet, in the last 8 months things have improved significantly in the north. Most aid organizations no longer travel with military escort. The number of attacks has decreased significantly. The night commuters now come in 20s and 30s instead of 2000s or 3000s. The LRA are presumed to be largely in southern Sudan, the DRC and even CAR. But some are still in Uganda.