LRA attacks on aid convoys have made food distributions a dangerous affair.
Credit: IRIN (2003)
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In response to the widespread displacement caused by the LRA insurgency in northern Uganda, President Yoweri Museveni's government in 1996 began to create "protected villages", where displaced people came to benefit from military protection and humanitarian aid.
In recent months, however, the camps themselves have become the targets of LRA violence. Some aid workers say the rebels have begun to time their attacks to coincide with life-saving distributions of food aid. As a result, some camp residents say they now leave a portion of their meagre food rations outside their huts at night, hoping the rebels will simply take it, and leave them hungry but unharmed.
Humanitarian Access
Humanitarian operations in northern Uganda have become a risky affair for those brave enough to attempt to deliver assistance to the IDPs. Travelling to any of the 59 camps scattered around the Acholi sub-region is now only possible with heavy military escorts, and only when the security situation is calm.
Among the many aid organizations working in Uganda, only the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has established a security arrangement with the army that enables it to make daily food distributions to the camps.
Largely because of security checks, the daily aid convoy does not leave before 10.00 am. Three armoured vehicles and as many as 100 UPDF soldiers escort the convoy, which can sometimes stretch up to two kilometres in length.
"This is the only way we can protect ourselves from security related problems. We have seen similar convoys which have been attacked by rebels," Pedro Amolat, who runs WFP operations in Gulu, told IRIN.
Progress for the convoy can be slow and unpredictable, as trucks get stuck in the mud or are slowed down by security concerns. "Most of the other organisations that do not like to be escorted by soldiers have suspended their work in the field because the rebels have no respect for anything on the road," Amolat says.
Crippling insecurity
The impact of insecurity on humanitarian work is crippling. It has gravely affected the ability of NGOs to provide humanitarian services to affected populations.
Charles Uma, of the Gulu District Disaster Management Committee (DDMC), told IRIN that between April and July 2003 the LRA had burned four camps in Gulu District alone. Pabbo, the largest camp in the district, with an estimated population of 50,000, was attacked 17 times between January and July 2003.
Aside from food aid, virtually no assistance has reached the victims of these raids. "No non-food items have reached the victims. We have failed to transport them to the camps. I still have these items in store," Uma said.
"I may be required to go to the camps frequently, but I can't travel freely. We have drugs but they can't reach camps without military escort. When our programmes don't match with WFP's then we have to rely on light military escorts that usually cannot stand heavy firepower," Uma explains
Over the last year, the IDP camp population of northern Uganda has roughly doubled.
Credit: Sven Torfinn (2002)
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A life of abject poverty
In the past year, intensified LRA activities have led to a doubling of the population of the camps, from approximately 400,000 to 800,000.
This latest estimate has pushed to around 80 percent the proportion of displaced Acholis, whose entire population in Uganda stood at 1.05 million, according to the 2002 census.
The quality of life inside the camps has deteriorated so far that most residents receive just one meal per day, and if the food convoy fails to reach them or is delayed they may not get a meal at all.
Water supply is also a major problem. On average, people in the camps live on less than four litres per day, and in some cases survive on just one litre, according to a social worker with the French charity Action Contre la Faim.
"Everything is a mess. We have broken boreholes, which can easily be fixed. But we can't do it. People can't go out to build their latrines; going out is too risky. One pit latrine serves so many people. Everything is a mess," the ACF official told IRIN.
Aid workers say over 80 percent of the population in Gulu District, once described as the granary of northern Uganda, are now totally dependent on WFP relief food.
In Olwal, one of 33 camps scattered around Gulu town, most IDPs interviewed by IRIN said they would be keen to return to their homes and start to work on their land if the government could provide them with security.
Olwal Camp, situated about 25 km from Gulu, accommodates 25,000 people. Like many local people, its community leader, Tom Okello Airi, believes the camps were created for purely military, tactical reasons. He says most people in his camp lost all their assets when they were ordered to vacate their homes and live in the protected camps, condemning them to a life of abject poverty and total dependency on emergency relief food.
"When we were brought here, we thought we would return home much sooner. But now it seems there will be no end. When we came here, that is where our problems started. All the things we left behind were looted, some by the rebels and others by the army," he says.
Airi also complains that the monthly food distributions in the camp are insufficient, and many people go without food for days. He says the only advantage of living in the camp is a reduction in child abductions. "I don't know when God will take away our problems. Go to other distant camps and you will see for yourself," he says.
"...help us to go back..."
Airi says he has lost faith in the government's ability to protect the Acholi people, and urges the international community to intervene. "This war has been politicised so much that no-one is thinking honestly to end it. The politicians are not suffering like us; their relatives are in Kampala and not here. They are not transparent in their communication. Now we are asking the international community to help us to go back to our organised homesteads," he said.
Sanitation in Olwal is poor, making the camp's population vulnerable to epidemics. There are only three boreholes shared by 25,000 people. There are no garbage pits, and one pit latrine can be shared by as many as 20 families, one social worker told IRIN.
The camp has four primary schools, but the quality of education is poor. "Many teachers have been displaced. They may not make [it to school] some days when security deteriorates," Airi explained.
In Kitgum District, like everywhere else, food distribution is only carried out in officially designated camps, all of which are in Lamwo County, which has a population of some 110,000 people. The remaining 170,000 inhabitants of the district, living in Cwa County, are not in camps and so do not benefit from food aid.
The humanitarian situation in Pader district, where all 287,000 inhabitants are considered displaced, is thought to be even worse. There is hardly any distribution going on in the district, according to retired Bishop Baker Ochola of Kitgum District.
Food was delivered in the district only once, and now up to two children are dying daily in each of the camps due to lack of food and health care, and poor sanitation, Ochola told IRIN. "Children are dying daily of measles and diarrhoea. You can't imagine any situation like this anywhere else in the world," he says.
Links:
OCHA Internal Displacement Unit
Global IDP project
Refugees International Uganda page
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