80% IDPs Are Women, Children
|
| ||||||||||
The Monitor (Kampala)
April 19, 2005
Posted to the web April 18, 2005
Charles Mwanguhya Mpagi
Kampala
Women and children constitute at least 80 percent of all people living in internally displaced people's camps caused by 19 years of war in northern Uganda, the UN children's agency, Unicef, has said.
In its situational report for March, Unicef said an estimated 1.4 million people living in camps for the internally displaced continue to live with basic essentials like food, water and proper sanitation.
|
|
"Displacement, poverty and heightened violence attendant to the 19-year, child-centric armed conflict in northern Uganda continue to deprive children and women of their rights to fully access basic healthcare, safe water, primary education, protection and shelter," reads the report in part.
The report further says that an estimated 30,000 children sleep on shop verandas in the affected towns for fear of attacks from rebels.
"Each evening, the threat of attacks and abductions by LRA rebels drives approximately 30,000 child "night commuters" to seek the relative safety of urban centres, primarily in Gulu, Kitgum and Pader," the report says.
|
Unicef says after a short lull in attacks, the rebel Lords Resistance Army has resumed attacks where they kill, abduct and maim civilians.
"Following a two-month lull in hostilities, the reporting period witnessed an intensification of LRA attacks against civilians. Reported incidents of violence included the killing of a currently unconfirmed number of civilians in Gulu and Adjumani Districts (at least 10); the ambush and mutilation of women in Kitgum District (at least seven had their lips, ears or breasts sliced off); and the abduction of dozens (including 49 in Apac District)."
__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around
http://mail.yahoo.com
_______________________________________________ Ugandanet mailing list Ugandanet@kym.net http://kym.net/mailman/listinfo/ugandanet % UGANDANET is generously hosted by INFOCOM http://www.infocom.co.ug/
