£1.2 Million Contributed to Support Displaced Ugandans

|TOP|The Ugandan government has distributed 4 billion Ugandan Shillings (£1.2 million) to support the resettlement of internally displaced persons (IDPs) living in camps in Northern Uganda, according to The EastAfrican. Organisations such as The World Food Programme (WFP) and World Vision have pledged to contribute to the welfare of the resettled people.

United Nations humanitarian agencies will also offer money and provisions to the resettlement effort.

Although Prime Minister Apollo Nsibambi told parliament last week that the government is prepared to provide assistance to IDPs for the first six months after they return home, the humanitarian bodies claim the resettlement process is a long-term affair and it will take more than six months for resettled people to stabilise physically and psychologically.

Information from the Ministry of Disaster Preparedness shows that WFP has pledged to supply food for the next six months while officials from World Vision said they will continue with their "Area Development Programmes" in northern Uganda – HIV/Aids prevention, care and support, water and sanitation services, as well as education – even after resettlement. |AD|

Julius Mucunguzi, World Vision's senior communications officer said: "We are prepared to refocus our interventions to meet the needs of resettling people."

He added that World Vision had developed a manual in collaboration with the government to address the post-
conflict needs of the people as they resettle. "We shall change from relief to more development-centred programmes," he said.

The government plans to give returnees iron sheets, food and agricultural inputs including seeds and tools such as hoes and ox-ploughs for six months after leaving the camps.

The insurgency in northern Uganda that lasted 20 years has displaced approximately 1.6 million people, out of the 1.4 million are living in IDP camps and 200,000 in out-of-home communities and with relatives. A significant proportion of IDPs in the Lango and Teso regions, which are the primary focus for resettlement, have already returned home but will also benefit from the resettlement packages.

"They will be tracked using registers they detailed while leaving the camps," said an official from the ministry. This move follows a directive by President Yoweri Museveni last October to the Ministry of Disaster Preparedness to resettle IDPs in places where the army had restored peace.