School's out for refugees
2003-09-30 09:10
Arua, Uganda - In the middle of a makeshift tent, thatched with twigs and plastic sheeting, three-year-old Jimmy Oyet watches as his mother prepares lunch of maize meal.
Stunted and dehydrated, his skin eaten by scabies, the child is a testimony to the life lived by thousands of Sudanese refugees who were forcibly relocated to two camps in this region by the host government.
Early this month, the Ugandan government decided to forcibly move more than 16 000 refugees from the congested transit camp of Kiryandongo further south to the settlements of Madi Okollo and Ikafe.
Thousands of makeshift tents stretch across the 40 square kilometres of savannah that has been allocated to nearly seven thousand refugees at Madi Okollo.
A family of 12 or less is allocated a hectare of land for farming, but no seeds have been distributed yet.
The danger of an epidemic here is high, as sanitation is simply lacking. Temporary latrines exist, but the relief workers still have to convince the refugees to use them, instead of the nearby bushes.
"Many of the refugees prefer to use the nearby bushes," said Adi Gersti of the German Development Service - the NGO running the refugee programme.
Twenty-six children died in 10 days as a result of sanitation-related ailments such as diarrhoea and scabies, while malaria and respiratory tract infections are also taking their toll, said Ugandan Deputy Prime Minister in charge of refugees, Moses Ali, who was with the team.
Thirteen little graves
Thirteen little graves, still fresh, lay in a single line at Madi Okollo.
At Ikafe, in Yumbe district, a few kilometres from the border with Sudan, refugee officer Aggrey Zikusoka admitted that there were problems, with the only health centre there in dire need of restocking.
For Madi Okollo, at the nearby district hospital of Nebbi, where serious cases are referred, the refugee influx has overwhelmed the limited capacity.
Refugee children, some of whom were about to start their final examinations before they were relocated, are not attending classes any more.
Nearly 105 were due to sit their Primary Leaving Examination while 37 were to sit their secondary school finals in November, but James Oyet, who was in form-one in a community school at Kiryandongo, does not know when he will resume classes again, as education infrastructure is non-existent at Madi Okollo camp.
"I don't know whether we shall resume school, because since the population was divided, the school is also divided by the relocation," he said, adding that some students were now at the Ikafe camp, 100km away.
The government promised to provide 10 tents for the primary section, but the high temperatures here could make learning in a tent a nightmare.
Ali denied that the hasty relocation pushed by the government was to blame for the poor conditions here.
"Understandably, there is need to provide more services like water, health, mosquito nets to mothers and other non-food items, but generally, the exercise, code-named "Operation New Hope," has been a success," Ali said.
The Sudanese were displaced last August from northern Uganda's settlement of Acholi Pii, following an attack by Lord's Resistance Army rebels, who killed about 50 of the refugees.
There are about 160 000 Sudanese refugees housed in camps in northwestern Uganda and many of them now pin their hopes on ongoing peace talks in Kenya between Sudan's government and the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Army, which controls most areas of southern Sudan.
The Sudanese civil war has killed more than 1.5 million people and displaced four million others since it erupted in 1983.