Initial observations about the North

About a week ago, I headed up north to Pader district to do some interviews. It’s a different country up there, mainly because of the 22 year insurgency that’s been going on and the fact that up until a few years ago, 2 million people, that’s the vast majority of the population, were displaced living in internally displaced persons (IDP) camps. The insurgent Lord’s Resistance Army, led by the elusive Joseph Kony had been fighting government forces, with the aim of establishing a country based on the 10 commandments. They’ve abducted tens of thousands of children over the years to be used as child soldiers (who are now the LRA themselves after growing up), porters and sex slaves. They killed indiscriminately; they mutilated genitals, lips, noses and ears and cut off the limbs of many of those whose lives were spared.

Largely ignored by the mainstream media, the conflict was allowed to reach a peak in the early 2000s. The government had been criticised for ignoring the development of the north, and many many NGOs and UN agencies have taken root in the area known as Acholiland, made up of the districts of Gulu, Kitgum and Pader.

The security situation is much better these days as the LRA are in the border regions of Uganda, Democratic Republic of Congo, Sudan and the Central African Republic. They’ve recently killed civilians and troops in South Sudan, and the other nations along with Uganda and the UN are agreeing on coordinated military action against him. This is worrying in a way as he will most certainly up his own game of abduction, displacing many more in an area where there are so many war displaced already from Darfur, Chad, DRC, South/North Sudan conflict.

It’s a bit messed up really.

My journey up to the north wasn’t the smoothest. At one point, I thought I’d be staying the night in a very small town/IDP camp called Acholibur. There was little transport passing through and the rain was torrential. What struck me in the north at first, was the number of people who appeared to have abnormal mental states. You don’t come across them in Kampala, but in the little town of Acholibur, there were 3 people who were definitely mentally disturbed.

A result of the upheaval experienced by themselves, but also of experienced by the society as a whole?

I hitched a ride with a World Vision Landcruiser to Pader when it was dark, and got into the GOAL office quite late, and a little hungry, but the football was welcoming. There was no running water in Pader, which is something immediately in contrast with what I was used to in Kampala. I’m sure there are many areas in the south without water, but this was the capital of the district. Many of the buildings were mud and straw huts, which are what you expect in villages, but not towns. An example of the extreme inequality of development between Kampala and the rest of Uganda.

I conducted an interview in the World Food Programme compound the following morning, surrounded by 6 humongous tents that housed tons of sacks of flour, and rice, and cartons of oil. This was an indicator of the response that is needed to address the problems following the uprooting of your life to be transplanted into an artificially created camp with little opportunity to continue living, farming and trading the way they were used to.
I carried on to Kalongo town/IDP camp, and the base of operations for the emergency programme of GOAL NGO. The area was beautiful, with large looming mountain standing sentinel over the town. Actually, Ugandan Peoples Defence Force (UPDF) troops were based up there maintaining a look out post. A very strategic position as when I went up there, you could see the various hills around the town, and see the lay of the land for miles. My guide, Peter, who has been out of school due to lack of money, pointed out how the LRA made their way from the road to Kitgum, through fields, copses of trees, to a small ridge next to the town where they waited for night fall. Then they made their move. Usually a small number around 6, where half would raid, loot and burn buildings, and the other half would kill and abduct.

You could see how the town was laid out, with brick buildings lining the road, and just behind them were the huts where villagers and IDPs lived. Using the zoom on my camera, I could see other IDP camps dotted around the area. Children from these camps used to commute into Kalongo time to seek shelter at night. These smaller camps were more vulnerable to attack you see.

Peter also told me about how the IDPs and villagers would gang up on the Karamojong now, to defend their cattle. The Karamojong are armed nomadic cattle herders who have been carrying out cattle raids and killings in the area also.

With the programmes that GOAL and other NGOs are doing, people are gaining a greater amount of food security as they are farming again, although this is barely enough to survive, and little gets to market to be generated as income. There have been many water and sanitation projects too, but I can’t really speak of their impact. I have nothing to compare to, and I didn’t visit any projects due to time.

For sure, the NGOs have made a difference, but real change can only occur when the security problems are resolved and economic development is spurred on by the government. They are the ones who can credibly steer the vehicle of change.

That’s all for now. I don’t want you (or myself) to get eye strain.