It's home bittersweet home for northern Uganda's returnees
APYETA (AFP) — Joseph Alana has returned to the village Uganda's civil war forced him to flee. The mango tree he planted years ago is one of the few things still standing and the task ahead is huge.
"I'm happy to be back home. I planted this mango tree many years back, I'm now enjoying the fruit of this tree," says the 67-year-old.
The war that raged for two decades between the government and the rebels from the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) drove him out of Apyeta, once a small village some 380 kilometres (230 miles) from the capital Kampala.
His wife and two of his children died of diseases in squalid camps for the displaced. His third son was abducted and forcibly enlisted in LRA ranks.
On the back of the cessation of hostilities signed in August 2006, he embarked on a journey with a group of around 20 people to reclaim Apyeta, with no water nor food.
Now the village counts around 600 inhabitants. A group of children peeling groundnuts look on as the men fit thatch roofs on newly-built huts.
For Angelina Ayiko, the return to her home village and the rebuilding process is salvatory.
"I feel I have freedom again," she says, sitting in her brand new hut under a few cooking pots hanging on string from the ceiling.
Yet after so many years in camps for the displaced, attempting a return often implies losing a relative level of comfort and access to some commodities.
"We have to adapt to a lot of things here. In the camps, we had access to markets, casual labour and sources of income," she explains.
But her son Francis is quick to point out the advantages of living in one's own community.
"This life is a better life, more peaceful. There is not so much competition for resources like in the camp," says the 22-year-old.
But according to the United Nations, barely 10 percent of the displaced have returned home and 60 percent have remained in permanent camps since the ceasefire was reached.
The war between the government and the LRA has been one of the longest and most brutal civil conflicts in Africa, leaving tens of thousands dead and around two million homeless.
Apyeta sits in a rather inhospitable expanse of densely-vegetated plains and hills shrouded in a stifling cloak of humidity.
"There's no transport, we don't have any markets or any way to make money. We always fall sick because the nearby river is full of mosquitos," says Joseph.
"I'm not able to go to school, I'm trying to work and raise money to go back to school," says Francis.
A few miles away, in the village of Paludar, Grace Achan is struggling to find any positive development in her life since she left the refugee camp.
"We have just returned... We don't have a decent shelter, we lack basic services. I have no confidence at all in the security situation," says the 26-year-old pregnant woman, who would have to walk around 20 kilometres (12 miles) to give birth in a clinic.
The bluish hills of southern Sudan where the LRA rebels are supposed to gather under the ceasefire agreement are only about 50 kilometres (30 miles) away.
Earlier this month, top LRA commander Joseph Kony failed to show up at the signing ceremony for a final peace agreement in the nearby Sudanese jungle town of Ri-Kwangba.
The historic signing has been postponed indefinitely and a ceasefire agreement was not renewed, instilling fear in northern Uganda residents that the army may decide to go after the rebels and spark a fresh period of violence.
"I'm a bit worried because the nearby army detachment was closed two weeks ago. We believe we are the first target if the LRA crosses the border," says Apyeta village chief Saverio Oketayot.
In an attempt to bolster the return process, the International Committee of the Red Cross in March switched from free distributions of crop seeds and tools to income-generating and cash-for-work programmes.
The ICRC says the programme -- in which returnees choose projets for their communities such as opening up land for cultivation or restoring infrastructure -- will benefit around 40,000 people in the whole of northern Uganda.
"It's no longer about responding to a chronic humanitarian crisis but we have to adapt our work to this long transition phase," says ICRC Uganda chief Michel Meyer.
