Pabo IDP camp

I just returned from my trip to Gulu, which is a 7 hour drive from Mbale and in northern Uganda. We visited an IDP camp, called Pabo, with 43 thousand people. Very sad. There used to 64000 but some have gone home now because it has officially been declared safe for them to do so. It is the largest camp in the area. Many people still remain, mainly because they are scared that it isn't really safe, but also because they have been there for 11 years and it is not a simple thing to move back home where there is nothing left.
Gulu is also the place where the children used to come from miles around into the town to sleep at night--used to be about 15,000 children walking into town each night from the villages and sleep anywhere they could, because it is safer there. The LRA would raid villages at night and kidnap the children to be child soldiers. One of the workers with the ministry that we visited was a soldier with the LRA for 5 years. He was captured when the LRA raided his village when he was 14 and then worked his way to quite high up in the army. After being with them for 5 years, he was shot and left at a hospital to recover, and then left and went to a World Vision rehabilitation Centre in Gulu. I can't even imagine what he has been through...he didn't give me many details as he told the story and I didn't press him.
We also met a pastor of a church in the IDP camp who was captured by the LRA, which is quite unusual because normally they just capture the children and kill all of the adults. The only time the keep adults (or so I've been told) is when they have a specific purpose, such as carrying a load, so he knew that he had to escape or he would be killed. He managed to run away and escape at night and is now pastoring a church in the IDP camp.
The camp looked a lot different than I expected, it was more like a village with its own little shops, and even some schools and a health centre provided by the government. The only difference was that none of the people own any land, all the huts are built squashed together, almost on top of each other, on dirt ground. There are children, mostly naked or barely clothed at all, running around all over the place. Many of them are carrying babies on their backs, even though they only look like they are about 5 years old themselves. One little girl was struggling to hold a baby and was going to put her down on the ground so I reached down to help her and she grabbed the baby and ran away. Vinnie, on of the Ugandan Jenga workers who speaks their language (he speaks 20 languages--and that's only counting the ones he's actually fluent in!!) went after the girl and tried to talk to her but she ran from him also. The children live in fear. Their whole lives they have known nothing but living in fear. The LRA used to come and raid the camps, and although they have military protection, the military would hide because they are scared of the LRA, because the LRA would usually target the military first to get them out of the way so they could raid the camp.

Anyway now the situation does look more hopeful, the LRA has not raided this camp since 2004 I believe, and as I said, the people are slowly starting to return to their homes.