The United Nations refugee agency has restored more than 130 primary schools in northern Uganda, paving way for thousands of children to return to classes, after the damage and destruction caused by two decades of conflict between Government forces and the rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA).
UNHCR says some of the schools have been rebuilt at their old sites, while others have been moved to new sites as peace gradually returns to the north after a series of agreements between the Government and the LRA to end conflict that began in the Mid-1980s.
Sisse Kristensen, a community services officer for UNHCR in Uganda, says many local communities had approached the agency for help, because they did not have the resources to rebuild or restore the schools.
Hundreds of thousands of internally displaced persons (IDPs) have been returning home across northern Uganda since the peace talks began two years ago, and now only a final, wide-ranging accord remains to be signed by the two sides.
The UN envoy on the issue, the former Mozambican president Joaquim Chissano, told the Security Council last week that frustration is growing among many Central African countries that the LRA leadership has not been willing to sign the final accord and that the rebels continue to commit some atrocities.
But the violence and unrest has largely subsided in the region, allowing the large-scale return of civilians and a desire to rebuild basic services.
