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Moving On From Internal Displacement in Northern Uganda
After more than a decade of confinement to the crowded IDP camps, in 2006 the Ugandan Government declared the majority of the IDPs free to move out of the camps. The war in Northern Uganda has dragged on for more than two decades though, during which more than 1.1 million people were displaced into more than 150 camps the Acholi Sub-Region alone.
As of 2009, this large displaced population had begun taking advantage of their new freedom, steadily moving outside the camps toward the areas of their origin. This return pattern is challenged however by the lack of services in the return areas, the difficulties in accessing several sites, the lack of governance at parish level, and by the incapacity of a coordinated approach at parish level by the humanitarian actors.
Of the approximately 1,100,000 people living in camps in Acholiland at the end of 2005, about 184,000 (17%) still remain in camps in 2009. Of the roughly 826,000 returnees, about 217,000 are in return areas which are generally close to, but not on, their original land due to the transient nature of movement back-and-forth between camps, transit sites, and villages. In the four-month period from May - September ‘09 nearly 100,000 people moved out of IDP Camps.
With such great numbers of people moving, and with great improvements to return-area services necessary for a safe return, these photos are excerpts from a book which set out better understand where people are moving, and share with policy makers the realities of the service gaps still present as they reflected the next steps in humanitarian intervention.
