The people of Lainya County are gradually returning to their homes. Clashes, in early July, between the national army and other armed groups had driven them into out-skirting bush land seeking shelter and safety for the past two months.

The area’s Commissioner, Augustino Keri Gwolo, said that over five hundred people have thus far returned to their original homes and farms.

“People have been returning…all this time and the number is increasing daily,” Commissioner Gwolo said. He identifies places such as Bereka, Loka and Kenyi as those whose dwellers have returned so far.

However, he stressed that although life was showing signs of returning to normal, the humanitarian support for the returnees was nowhere to be seen. People were simply returning to empty houses.

“The town has been devastated, the hospital is not working, and there are no schools,” he then added that even the only market operating in the area had been looted, ransacked and destroyed.

Al Wani, a resident of Lainya had fled to nearby Loka Boma.  He said that many people still remain living in the bush, awaiting the arrival of the county authorities to guarantee their safety.

Mr. Wani said that most of the villagers still believe that police personnel must to be deployed to the town and to surrounding villages, as well as the return of the county commissioner, these steps are required to guarantee security.

“Although there are returns now, the numbers are few compared to the still displaced villagers that remain in hiding, in the bush” he concluded.