For nearly two decades, the LRA has perpetrated massacres and mutilations mainly in the northern Uganda, southern Sudan, eastern DR Congo and more lately, in Central African Republic. The violence displaced more than 1.8 million people over the past 20 years and tens of thousands of civilians have been killed and kidnapped. Some 360,000 are still living in the IDP camps. It is estimated that more than 50% of remaining camp residents are children under the age of 15, with 25% having lost one or both parents.
The LRA and government signed a truce in 2006 aimed at ending the long-running conflicts and a permanent cease-fire in 2007; a peace agreement was expected to be signed by both parties in May 2008. This attempt failed as the LRA did not turn up to the signing ceremonies in Juba, South Sudan. The security situation around the country excluding small areas bordering Kenya and Sudan [Karamoja region] is relatively calm and the atmosphere is optimistic in light of the witnessed absence of LRA.
Karamoja, with its small arms death rate approaching 600 per 100,000 of the population, is one of the world’s most armed violence-afflicted regions.1 Since the 1970s, cattle raids have escalated in lethality with the proliferation of modern assault rifles. A commensurate rise in armed criminality in which acts of violence are increasingly orchestrated irrespective of community norms on the use of force, has severely impaired the region’s socio-economic development. To begin addressing the challenge in Karamoja, the government has established a National Action Plan on Small Arms and Light Weapons 2004-2008 and Karamoja Integrated Disarmament and Development Plan 2007-2010.
Whilst confidence is increasing among the IDP population that the peace will hold; that law and order can be assured; and individuals can return to their homes, the fear of landmines and UXO has been recognised as one of the restraints to the return and resettlement process. There is a problem of perception whereby IDP population have a degree of fear with regard to presence of landmines and UXO that acts as a negative influence upon their willingness to return to traditional home areas, whilst the reality is often that a few scattered items of UXO may exist within these areas posing no obstacle to the returning population.
The Ugandan Peoples Defence Force (UPDF), other government security agencies and the LRA all used a small number of landmines and a wide variety of ammunition over the course of the civil war. The unpredictable occurrence of UXO in particular and questionable if well-meant Mine Risk Education methodology employed in northern Uganda have further served to heighten the concerns of returnees. Both the UPDF and the LRA used school buildings as makeshift security posts and these were often the subjects of battle between the two opposing sides. Mine action needs assessments and non-technical surveys have identified 428 suspected hazardous areas (SHA) in the northern and western districts of Uganda. The Office of the Prime Minister (OPM) has been mandated to provide a land-release mechanism, covering suspected hazardous areas and areas of return and recovery. To date, a majority of these areas have been cleared of unexploded ordnance and released to local population, and the current estimate of the OPM is that the workforce needs to expand and continue clearance for three years until 2012.
Since 2007 when DDG opened a mine action project with Danish International Development Agency in Gulu, the DDG programme has become an integral part to the National Mine Action Programme (NMAP) operating in northern and western Uganda, addressing challenges of contamination of and perceptions towards unexploded ordnance and landmines in the effort to facilitate safer environment for the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs). Partnering with the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM) and United Nations Development Programme, DDG works from within the Uganda Mine Action Centre (UMAC) and with the relevant line ministries, providing technical advisory, management and logistical support, material and training assistance, and risk education.
The DDG programme comprises the following components; Targeted Mine Action in Uganda to support Returnees; Technical, Management and Logistics Support to the NMAP; and Risk Education to School Children and Teachers in the districts affected by the Explosive Remnants of War. DDG has developed and maintain close relationships with UPDF, International Convention to Ban Landmines (ICBL) and Geneva International Centre for Humanitarian Demining (GICHD).
