A Night in Gulu: Uganda's Own Refugee Camps

The following article was published in September 2006 by the UN’s humanitarian affairs office, IRIN (Integrated Regional Information Networks). In the year between publication and my visit last year to similar camps in a nearby town, not much had changed. The women still had to wait in line at the water kiosks, sanitation was virtually non-existent, and any serious form of schooling was out of the question. People have been living in these internal displacement camps for years and it doesn’t look like they are going home any time soon.

OPIT, GULU, 11 Sep 2006 (IRIN) - The bonfire cast the shadows of dozens of people against the walls of mud and wattle huts in the sprawling internally displaced persons' (IDPs) camp.

"The bonfire was the place where elders, the youth and women met to discuss solutions to problems facing the community," Milton Munu, an elder at Opit IDP camp in northern Uganda's Gulu District told the gathering. "But similar meetings were last held here 20 years ago. Because of insecurity, meetings around the bonfire that used to help the community close ranks have not been held since."

Another elder, Korina Odur, who broke down in the middle of her contribution, said bonfire meetings were the principal medium for informal education, where children were taught good behaviour and girls how to run homes. "For 20 years we have been denied this tool," she said.

Before inviting Jan Egeland, the [former] United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, to address the meeting on Saturday, Munu narrated the history of Opit camp, 32 km southeast of Gulu town. The camp had been attacked 11 times by the rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) before the Ugandan army deployed a permanent unit to guard it.

"We want to help you go home when you think it is safe to go," Egeland said. "We are seeking your views on what the international community can do to help."

The UN official had earlier arrived at the camp without much fanfare. Some IDPs were surprised when he announced that he wanted to spend the night with them - becoming the first senior UN official to sleep at an IDP camp in the region battered by years of conflict.

Hordes of children, some barely dressed, followed Egeland as he toured the camp before dusk, walking carefully through the myriad huts and past rubbish that showed how dire the sanitation is in Opit.

Many demands

At the bonfire, the IDPs talked about the desire to return home, but many things were needed to facilitate the journey to their villages - for most, the first time home in years.

"There is no water. We need some food to go with, ox-ploughs and iron sheeting. The government should adequately deploy the police at every sub-county..." The list was long.

The main issue, however, was the role of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in the northern Uganda peace process. The court has indicted LRA commanders, including its leader Joseph Kony - a decision local people said could jeopardise the ongoing talks in the southern Sudanese town of Juba.

The talks have been enhanced by the promise of an amnesty to the rebels made by the Ugandan government if the rebels agree to a peace deal in Juba.

"The international community should tell the ICC that the people of Opit don't want their involvement because they are just holding back the peace process," Nixon Winy said, prompting Egeland to ask what should be done to those who have committed crimes against humanity.

One of the elders replied: "The amount of death in Acholi should not be equated to the pursuing of five LRA commanders," adding that the Acholi people had a system that was capable of delivering justice in the region.

Story time

Forty minutes into the debate, the meeting turned to one of the last items - stories that teach the children about society.

Egeland told one about a mouse that saved a lion from a hunter's snare. The lion had threatened to devour the rodent, which had promised to help the lion if it were spared. "However powerful you are, we need each other and can help each other," he concluded.

Then it was time for dinner. The meal, served on plastic plates, consisted of a local delicacy - cassava, potatoes and a mixture of green vegetables and peanuts. Soon Egeland retired to his hut where a mattress had been laid out for him.

For some on Egeland's entourage, including local and international journalists, the night would be long. Sleeping in a windowless school-room, they endured swarms of mosquitoes. "This area is mosquito-infested. Malaria is the biggest ailment here and it kills many children," Yolanda Olio, the nursing assistant at Opit Health Centre said.

After breakfast of tea and groundnuts the next morning, traditional dancers turned up to bid Egeland farewell. "Thank you for spending a night with us," Munu told Egeland, before the convoy roared away.