IDPs stuck in camps over resettlement packages

Recent statistics from the Office of the Prime Minister indicate that there are about 20,000 people still stuck in camps in Gulu District, many of whom are vulnerable and those with land related wrangles.

Gulu

Unless the government provides resettlement packages, no resident will return home, Internally Displaced Persons from Ongako village, Gulu District have said.

The residents said they do not have the capacity to facilitate their own return to their villages because camp life rendered them economically powerless.

“We need support from the government for meaningful return. We cannot just vacate camps and live meaningless lives in the villages,” Mr Justine Okot, a representative of the residents told a team of officials who had gone for a camp assessment exercise last Friday.
The President, during his 2006 presidential campaigns pledged to give 30 iron sheets per family in Acholi Sub- region but the distribution exercise has since hit a snag after only about 300 families benefited.

“Five years down the road since the pledge, nothing has materialised, we are not moving away,” Mr Jocinto Oryema, another resident said.

He said they are tired of district officials asking them about the problems camp residents face without offering any solution.

Another resident of Amuru District, Ms Alice Agum, said as much as some of them are willing to leave the camps, transport still remains a big challenge.

“During the time of displacement, we walked up to the camps, but at this advanced age, many of us cannot trek for kilometres to our homes,” Ms Agum said.

The District Disaster Preparedness Coordinator, Mr Jack Byaruhanga, said the government’s resettlement package is coming through programmes for general development and reconstruction of the region like the Peace Recovery and Development Programme and Northern Uganda Social Action Fund but not to individuals.

Mr Byaruhanga said there is no individual package for residents but the government is focusing on opening water sources, health centres, access roads, schools and agricultural support.

Recent statistics from the Office of the Prime Minister indicate that there are about 20,000 people still stuck in camps in Gulu District, many of whom are vulnerable and those with land related wrangles.