Moses Odokonyero writes in a local Ugandan newspaper: “On the rough and bumpy ride from Gulu town to Anaka trading centre about 35kms west of Gulu town, the road is full of signs of life. Trucks laden with matooke from Paidha in Nebbi district head in the opposite direction to town. Young men energetically peddle bicycles loaded with merchandise, beads of sweat dripping from their faces. People can be seen by the roadside, working in their green fields of groundnuts, beans and cassava. There is even a lone UPDF soldier in his garb walking along the road, not with a gun but a hoe!

For the past year, the north has seen the kind of peace that it hadn't had for long. The United Nations head of Humanitarian Affairs, Jean Egeland was recently quoted as saying the security situation in the region is the best in the last 10 years. "For the moment, we are able to sneak to our gardens and farm on our land. We don't know for how long it will be but we are praying that it stays that way," said Cosmas Okello as he clutched onto a crucifix dangling from his neck, hands fixed on his bicycle that is his mode of transport to and from the garden.

Hopeful
"If it continues like this, it won't be necessary for us to wait for the few mugs of the white man's food," he added in reference to the World Food Programme (WFP) that has been responsible for feeding nearly two million people holed up in the camps during the worst moments of fighting between rebels and government forces.

In Anaka IDP itself, on a bright Saturday afternoon, dozens of kids are playing soccer on a barren ground under a huge leafy tree.  A few metres a way from them, Ben Obwot and his wife Betty Akot are seated under a rough shade that he once used as a kiosk when the security situation was so bad.  "The only way I could get some money then was to open up this kiosk. But now it serves as a shade that I use when peeling my cassava from the garden. Things have somehow improved. You can even look at the kids playing freely. The only thing is we don't know how the talks in Juba will end."

On this particular day, he was preparing his cobs of maize, freshly harvested from the garden for drying. "This is my own maize that I grew because of this smell of peace that we are currently sniffing. I will use some of it to feed my family, some I will sell to buy school uniforms for my children."

As the government and the LRA talk about ways of peacefully resolving the conflict, locals in the region who for 20 years now have been living in dingy and stuffy IDPs with barely enough to eat are taking advantage of the relative peace to increase on their food production. Margaret Odora the L5 Councillor says "It's almost a year now that we have been having some peace. People have been able to farm on their land and get their own food. They now don't have to solely depend on World Food Programme food donations."

Even as they engage in food production, the IDPs have began facing challenges like any other ordinary peasant farmers in the country. For example, what was once the Anaka sub-county district agriculture extension office is now somebody's residence. “We want government to start using that house. So they can get us tractors to rent at cheaper prices and teach us better farming methods," said LC1 Chairman, Otto Ojumbe.

Anaka IDP camp and its environs neighbour Kabalega National Park. At the moment, residents and their leaders say one of the biggest problems they are facing is from a herd of elephants from the park that are roaming the county, uprooting trees and destroying their gardens. Some of the trees reportedly broken by the marauding elephants can be seen along the road from Gulu town to Anaka trading centre.

According to Gertrude Odora, the elephants recently attacked a man riding to town and smashed his bicycle. Luckily, he escaped unhurt. "The issue of the roaming elephants is of great concern among the farmers in Nwoya County. I have already raised the matter with the Uganda Wild Life Authority. I held a meeting with the management, they were very positive and have promised to act on the animals but they should do it quickly before people start hunting them down because the gardens they are destroying are the people's source of livelihood," said MP Simon Oyet. He says because of improved farming among the IDP's, he has started a project in which the IDPs will get 3,000 bicycles at a fairly cheap price of Shs50,000 each to ease the transportation of their farm products from their gardens to the camps or for sell in town.

Presently, a new bicycle costs between Shs80,000 and Shs130,000 depending on the type. "150 bicycles have already been given out to various farmers in the county. In the next three years, the plan is to give out 3,000 bicycles that I hope will help a lot in boosting local production because it's the most important means of transport in the villages,” added the MP. For the moment, the IDPs may be focused on increasing their food supplies and tilling their land but their ears remain glued to the radio, always eager for the latest from Juba, the Southern Sudan capital where their hopes now hang.”

Source: The Monitor Uganda article written by Moses Odokonyero, Gulu, Uganda  submitted 11-16-06