The beneficiaries represent half the population displaced by the long-running armed conflict and living in Gulu, Amuru, Oyam, Kitgum and Pader districts.

Before the rainy season began, people received a package of seed and a kit of agricultural implements. "We hope that displaced people will be able to take a major step toward sustainable economic recovery," said Olivier Gamel, an ICRC delegate in Gulu. The ICRC was aided in the operation, which lasted over a month, by 50 Uganda Red Cross Society volunteers.

The ICRC endeavoured to ease the strain on household budgets by distributing additional items such as school kits, material for making clothes, sanitary towels and soap.

The armed conflict in northern Uganda has driven an estimated 1.7 million people from their homes. The ICRC is currently striving by means of water, sanitation, health-care and material aid programmes to improve the living conditions for some 770,000 people in 64 camps.