Twenty more Ugandans trapped in Sudan fighting, Gen Otto

At least 20 more Ugandans who have expressed willingness to denounce war and return to the country have been trapped inside the fighting zones controlled by rebels fighting against the Sudanese government.

On Monday, Maj. Gen Richard Otto, the UPDF Chief of Defence Intelligence and Security, told political, religious and cultural leaders in Gulu City that the government had received intelligence about the individuals but can only rescue them upon engaging the rebel groups.
 
“There are 20 more (Ugandans) who wanted to return home, but where they are, we shall need to hold further engagement with those territories because they are in areas manned by Sudanese rebels,” Gen Otto said without stating the specifics of the rebel groups who controlled such areas.
 
Gen Otto was speaking during the reception of 46 new Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) returnee arrivals who arrived in Uganda on Monday morning via Gulu airfield following their repatriation from the Central African Republic (CAR).
 
The group, including 23 children and 13 mothers, landed at Gulu Airfield in Gulu City on Monday afternoon aboard Aerojet flight 5Y-RNG after departing from Juba International Airport in South Sudan on Sunday morning.
 
Gen Otto explained that the group comprised defectors from both the LRA and the Sudanese People’s Liberation Movement in Opposition (SPLM-iO).
 
“We have two groups here, the LRA and SPLM-IO members, of the 46, six of them are foreigners, and I want to thank the six foreigners for encouraging their colleagues to join these Ugandans and come home through a safe path, even if it was not far to cross to the Central African Republic.” Gen Otto said.
 
The non-Ugandans, you are going to be taken back to your countries, and the government of Uganda will coordinate with your countries and will be taken back home, so rest assured, there is no problem, he told the returnees.
 
According to Gen Otto, the group left Wao, South Sudan to Uganda after an initial attempt to take off to Uganda on Sunday failed due to bad weather.
 
“We were expecting these children yesterday, but the weather was not friendly; it was very harsh, so what happened we had to cancel the flight, but finally they landed this morning in Gulu.” Gen Otto said.
 
They are Ugandans, but some of them were working for SPLM-IO in South Sudan after being recruited. You remember the conflicts in South Sudan? There were some legal recruitments along the border, and some of them were abducted. Those who were in South Sudan were forced to join that group. Otto stated.
 
According to Terra Renaissance, the NGO partnering with the government to repatriate the returnees, the returnees are set to spend six months at the SOS Children’s Village in Gulu, during which they will undergo psycho-social rehabilitation before integration into their communities.
 
Mr Jimmy Fred Otema, the head of the sub-office for Terra Renaissance, explained that the rehabilitation will also involve life skills training.
 
“Now that we have received these formerly abducted persons, we are going to provide comprehensive support towards rehabilitation, including psychological and medical rehabilitation (rehabilitative therapy) in collaboration with a major hospital here in the north,” Mr Otema stated.
 
He also stated that the NGO will, in extreme cases, collaborate with major hospitals in Kampala to treat the physical and other invisible wounds and also provide nutritional rehabilitation.
 
According to Mr Otema, the NGO will also introduce the returnees and their children to basic literacy and intensive skills training, once they are reunited with their families.
 
“Just like we have done to the rest of previous returnees, as part of our integration efforts, we will do intensive skilling of the returnees so that they gain skills that are good enough competing the job markets here or to be able to create jobs by themselves.”
 
“We will do so by first empowering them in the skills for 18 months, and after which we will then equip them with the tools and the necessary capital and inputs so that they start their own businesses and become self-reliant and independent,” he added.
 
Meanwhile, Mr Martin Okumu, the deputy Prime Minister for Acholi chiefdom, asked communities to welcome and embrace the returnees, stressing that they will undergo all the cleansing ceremonies before reuniting with their families.
 
“We are organising a special reception for these people, just like we did with the previous groups, a traditional ceremony, where each of them will step on an egg as a cleansing process that we traditionally believe washes off the sins of an individual and the bad omen associated with the calamities they went through from captivity,” Mr Okumu explained.