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Uganda: 970 Women Repatriated
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The Monitor (Kampala)
26 October 2007
Posted to the web 26 October 2007
Samuel O. Egadu
ABOUT 970 Congolese women who accompanied Ugandan soldiers back from the battlefields in eastern Congo's Ituri province are being repatriated.
Close to 200 women were airlifted last week to the Congolese capital, Kinshasa using a charted plane, according to officials of the International Organisation for Migration (IOM).
Most of the women have been living in Gulu, Pader, Kitgum and Amuru districts in Acholi sub region. The IOM and government officials in Kinshasa are reportedly going to transport the women to their villages and reunite them with their families.
The women who are largely from Basankusu and Jemena, eastern DR Congo are crying that the UPDF soldiers, who allegedly brought them in 2001, have abandoned them.
However, the army yesterday denied the women's claims saying the soldiers did not come along with them.
The acting IOM officer in charge of Gulu Sub Office, Domenic Idah, said the exercise followed the screening exercise they carried earlier this year in Gulu, Pader, Kitgum and Amuru districts.
"The repatriation exercise is going well.
Out of 970 Congolese women, we have so far repatriated close to 200," Idah told Daily Monitor in an interview in Gulu yesterday.
"Some of these Congolese women were brought as result of human trafficking. Others came to follow their UPDF husbands and some came to follow their friends," he said.
He said the women have been living in bad conditions without proper accommodation, food and medical care (facilities). The Congolese women have been allegedly accused of being involved in prostitution in Gulu town and internally displaced persons camps in the region for survival after the UPDF soldiers abandoned them.
"We felt there was need for us to assist these women to return back to their country. During our identification exercise, we found these women were living in bad conditions without food, proper accommodation and medical facilities," Idah said.
The Gulu Resident District Commissioner and the chairperson of the district security committee, Col. Walter Ochora confirmed the women repatriated.
"My office is closely working with IOM for the repatriation of these Congolese women. So far, about 200 of them have been airlifted to Kinshasa," Col. Ochora told Daily Monitor in a phone interview yesterday.
Hard life
Several Congolese women who Daily Monitor yesterday interviewed at IOM offices in Gulu alleged that the UPDF soldiers, who brought them, have in turn decided to abandon them.
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They said they have been abandoned without food, accommodation and financial assistance. " Life has been tough here," one woman said.
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