1.8 million people, 20 years, no way home
The IDP Camps
At the height of the war, more than 90% of the Acholi population — roughly 1.8 million people — lived inside Internal Displacement (IDP) camps run by the Ugandan government and international agencies. Weekly death tolls in the camps sometimes exceeded 1,500.
Life in the camps
Camps were densely packed clusters of grass-thatched huts with no sanitation, minimal healthcare, and outdated food rations. Cholera, dysentery, and HIV spread quickly. Children born in the camps had never seen their family's land.
The lost generation
After 20 years, most adults had forgotten how to farm, build, or run a market. Skills that had sustained Acholi families for centuries were interrupted. Dependency on aid replaced self-sufficiency — a wound that still shapes the economy today.
Returning home
In 2008, the government closed the camps. Families walked back to villages with no schools, no clinics, no boreholes, and no livestock. Rebuilding began — and continues.
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