About 200 war survivors in northern Uganda will undergo specialized medical surgical operation in order remove shrapnel in their bodies as well as to repair injuries sustained during the two-decade war in northern Uganda which ended around 2006.
The survivors who will be drawn from Acholi, Lango, West Nile and Teso sub regions will receive treatment from specialists at St Mary’s Hospital- Lacor and Gulu Regional Referral Hospital and at CORSU, a specialist medical facility in Entebbe.
Stephen Oola, the program manager, conflict, transitional justice and governance at the Refugee Law Project(RLP), said on Friday that under their ”Beyond Juba Project 3,” at least 200 survivors with different kinds of injuries will undergo treatment to relief them off the pain that they have been enduring for many years.
Oola said victims of the war in northern Uganda continue to nurse serious untreated wounds that were inflicted during the insurgency which engulfed northern Uganda for more than twenty years.
According to RLP, an estimated 200,000 victims in northern Uganda continue to nurse serious but untreated wounds.
In the last three years, RLP under its Beyond Juba Project (BJP), with funding from the Democratic Governance Facility (DGF) has provided surgical support to over 131 war victims.
Some of the male survivors of rape need repair of their rectum after being ganged raped.
Julius Okwera, a male rape survivor from Nwoya district explained that specialized medical treatment is too expensive for majority of the victims which in turn makes it hard for them to heal.
Okwera explained that the medical operation will help in the healing process of the the war victims.
Dr Emmanuel Kalanzi, the senior orthopedic technologist at Gulu Regional Referral Hospital says some of the amputees require limbs but materials for making prosthetic limbs are very expensive. Dr Kalanzi observed that this in turn translates into high cost which is beyond the means of the majority of survivors.
Dr. Aloysious Tenywa Magala, a senior lecturer at Institute for Peace and Strategic Studies Gulu University says majority of the war survivors need restorative justice so that they can rebuild their life after the end of the insurgency.
