Large numbers head home in Uganda

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UN agencies working in northern Uganda say an unprecedented number of people displaced by the war there are starting to make their way home.

More than 1.5m people have left their land to live in displacement camps because of the 20-year conflict with the Lord's Resistance Army rebels.

But the UNHCR estimates that more than 300,000 people have already left camps in recent months.

Talks to end the conflict are currently taking place in southern Sudan.

If the UNHCR estimates are correct, half a million people will have begun to return to their land in northern Uganda by the end of 2006.

That is almost a third of those who were living in displacement camps at the beginning of the year.

Clearing land

Dennis McNamara from the United Nations Humanitarian Office in Geneva told the BBC the displaced Ugandans were voting with their feet for peace.

Many in the camps have not been home for years

The peace talks currently taking place in southern Sudan between the Ugandan government and the LRA rebels have increased the sense of security across northern Uganda.

But that is not the only reason for the eagerness to return. The camps in which these people have been living lack basic services.

They are overcrowded and the sanitation and shelter provided are well below minimum standards.

The Ugandan army still imposes restrictions on people's movement in northern Uganda.

Many of those who are beginning to clear their land for cultivation during the day return to sleep in the camps at night.

But the UNHCR says if its figures are correct, this will be one of the largest-scale movements of its kind ever to occur in Africa.