Ravaged by war, displaced, and thrown into “refugee camps” in Northern Uganda, women and girls are having to struggle for basic rights. Eighty percent of women in Uganda engage in agriculture and yet only 8 percent own land.
Land disputes have threatened the resettlement of thousands of former IDPs. Many IDPs are leaving the camps for their native villages while widowed women and female orphans are left behind to fend for themselves.
The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) says the security in these camps have been improving over the past three years. But it’s hard to believe. Two decades of war, some 2 million uprooted, the psychological impacts and loss of identity coupled with the prolong unhealed traumatic stresses, continue to take a huge toll.
Fifteen-year old Maureen Aceng was born in a refugeee camp. She now lives alone with her brother in a dilapidated mud hut. Her father was burned to death by the LRA in 2002 and then her mother died of illness. Her hope of returning to her parents village and recuperating their home and land is a distant dream.
“Traditionally in northern Uganda, much land was passed from generation to generation without official documentation,” said David Ben Okello, the IRC’s economic development manager in Uganda.
IRIN reports that at least 3,000 women and girls have no where to return. For more detailed information see (pdf) Oxfam’s report “From Emergency to Recovery.”
