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IRIN Web Special on the crisis in Northern Uganda
T E S T I M O N I E S - Bisentina Akello
Bisentina Akello (46) has been displaced twice in the last 16 years, first to Labonyo IDP camp in Gulu District, then to Olwal, another camp for displaced persons, where she now lives with her six children.
I have been living in the camps for the last 16 years. The first time we were displaced, we were taken to Labonyo. We lived there for 10 years. One day, rebels attacked our camp. They burned our huts and destroyed everything we had. My husband was killed in the attack. That is when the army brought us to Olwal.
Life in these camps has been very difficult. We don't have anything to depend on other than the WFP food, and this is even not enough.
We only eat a meal a day. Those of us who were displaced from Labonyo have no land to cultivate. The local community here does not give us land for free. We have to rent it. Even space for building a small latrine has to be rented. But we have no money. At the moment, our compound is too squeezed up. Most of us now depend on working on other people's fields.
Some of the fields are too far away from the camp. When you hear something, you must run away very quickly. There is lot of fear. You can't move around with the children. If you take them with you to the fields, they get abducted.
The little we get from working in the fields, we spend on other basic needs like medicine and schoolbooks for our children. But even this is not adequate. We are forced to exchange some of the food we get for soap and other necessities.
"Camp life has completely distorted and destroyed our culture"
The insecurity is also preventing is from carrying out our normal domestic activities such as collecting firewood and wild vegetables, and fetching water. These used to be a woman's leisurely activity. But now, if you go out of the camp, you get abducted, raped or even killed.
Camp life has completely distorted and destroyed our culture. Our children no longer respect us. The poverty here is promoting prostitution and early marriages. Children don't go to school anymore. Girls and boys are marrying even at the age of 14.
Before the war, the Acholi society was not dependent on distributed food. We had domestic animals and birds. We were able to buy all our basic needs, salt, soap, and even ate a balanced diet. If I got sick, I could easily sell a goat or a chicken in order to meet the cost of treatment.
Now we only get maize and beans. This is not even our staple food. We hate it but we can't refuse it because of this condition. They bring us the grain, but we still have to meet the cost of milling. There is no way out because we have no choice.
Even the little food we get from WFP sometimes is taken away by rebels when they attack. We really have no future. The camp is not a good place for human beings to live in. Our children are growing up without any future. But the government is still forcing us to stay in the camps. And the army is not even protecting us. We are still prisoners in our own land. We are restricted by the activities of both the rebels and the army. When will this end?
[Ends]
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