The Displaced

an example from northern Uganda

Northern Uganda has suffered 20 years of brutal civil war in which the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) has carried out merciless attacks. Some 2 million people were internally displaced into Government camps for their own safety. Now, as a fragile peace in Africa’s longest war continues to hold,  723,000 people remain living in camps whilst 367,000 others are in transit, moving to new sites, nearer to their original homes.

Chronic poverty is rife; an entire generation of young people and children have grown up knowing nothing but war and destruction.  They have suffered unspeakable brutality.  Abducted as child soldiers they were often forced through sheer terror to kill their own friends and family.

Girls were snatched to become sexual workers, many becoming pregnant and left to fend for their offspring as child mothers. Many women find themselves widowed or alone, supporting not only their own children but also orphans of the conflict.  This can mean caring for between nine and twenty children, with little or no means of earning a living. 

The lack of infrastructure in the country makes it impossible for these people to have a secure future. CORD is in partnership with two local organisations who are dealing in practical ways with the enormous problems facing their people.