The Women of Rhino

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When walking around the Rhino Camp refugee settlement in Northern Uganda, it is striking how few men can be seen in the villages. The large majority of refugees entering Uganda are women, elderly women, middle age women, young girls and infants. Each of them has a heartbreaking story to tell about why their husbands or fathers are not with them or what they have experienced during their journey to Uganda.

Many women can hardly tell their stories as tears begin streaming down their faces. A disabled woman who crossed the border into Uganda with her baby told the story of how she witnessed her husband’s murder. Another woman explained that she decided to flee, but her husband opted to stay behind to keep and protect the family’s property and land. She has not heard from him since she left her home and doesn’t know whether he will survive the war. A third woman who fled with her niece took a taxi to the Ugandan border where they were stopped by a group of armed men in uniform who said they were searching for persons from a particular tribe. She explained how the armed men singled out all the men from a specific tribe, forcefully took them out of the taxi and killed them. She added that all tribes are guilty of taking vengeance by hunting each other, killing men, and raping women and girls.

 A man joined the group and explained that some South Sudanese men went to the refugee settlement and felt redundant staying there and having nothing to do. They could not bear the humiliation of idleness because, in South Sudanese tradition, a man feeling redundant and having no means of livelihood is the worst form of humiliation. That is why many men preferred to go back to their home country to fight and to find work, even at the risk of being killed.  

Hearing these women’s stories calls to mind similar occurrences from the genocide in Rwanda in 1994, a devastating historical event that the world hopes to never see happen again. The refugee crisis in Uganda is rapidly digressing and many more South Sudanese women and girls need help to build a sustainable livelihood and resilience toward the challenging conditions they find themselves in. 
The women and men of Rhino Camp at a community gathering

By Delphine Mugisha, Program Director, CARE International in Uganda

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