West Nile Sub-region in northwestern Uganda shares borders with the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and South Sudan. This region has been marginalized politically and economically by its physical distance from central government in southern Uganda. This is related partly to social and economic disparity during the colonial period, and partly to the delay of developmental investment in the region due to the destabilization caused by violent incidents and administrative changes, which continued for several decades after Ugandan independence.

This article focuses on two issues. Firstly, it looks into what kind of violence people in West Nile faced after Idi Amin’s regime fell in 1979 until the current government seized power in 1986. Secondly, it examines peoples’ experiences during their exile and after repatriation. According to archival data obtained from Arua District in West Nile and a literature review, the violence of this period can be categorized into the following three types: ‘revenge’ by the UNLF government against former soldiers of Amin’s army; disturbance of political rivals and their supporters during the general election of late 1980; and the massacre and widespread damage in northern, eastern and central West Nile. This resulted in a tremendous number of killings, including those of ordinary people. However, it is complex and difficult to identify killers and victims.

Empirical data obtained by fieldwork among the Lugbara people in a rural village bordering with DRC shows that, even in this situation, some factors enabled people to evacuate and repatriate easily and strategically compared to other parts of West Nile. This article explores how kinship ties extending beyond the national border worked to help residents make their lives secure, and it concludes that it is important to pay attention to the complexity of triggers which prompted people to take refuge, and to the diversity of ways people escaped to the neighboring states.

Although South Sudan gained independence from Sudan in 2011, the country retrogressed into its own civil war, causing the third largest refugee crisis in the world after Syria and Afghanistan. Uganda is currently hosting a large proportion of South Sudanese refugees and has become the largest refugee-hosting country in Africa. Many studies have been conducted to investigate the factors that could hinder refugee children's access to schooling despite development-oriented refugee assistance in Uganda. However, there is a lack of study perceiving refugees not as recipients of benefits but as active players in the education system within refugee settlements.

The objective of this study is to explore the challenges of primary and secondary schooling under development-oriented refugee assistance in a South Sudanese refugee settlement in Northern Uganda from the perspectives of refugee students. Field study was conducted for one week in the Bidi Bidi Refugee Settlement in August 2017. Questionnaire surveys were conducted among students in one community primary school and one community secondary school, which were funded by aid agencies such as UNHCR. Semi-structured interviews were also carried out to complement the findings obtained from the questionnaire survey data.

The study revealed the following three insights. First, refugee children are still excluded from primary and secondary schooling even under Uganda's development-oriented refugee assistance. In addition to the limited capacity of the education system in the host communities, unequal land distribution for refugees limit their children's access to schooling in the settlement. Second, students'learning environment in community schools is poorly regulated as a side effect of the open-door policy. Learning in a well-managed and peaceful environment is important for refugee students. Third, refugee students are motivated to learn not necessarily because of Uganda's refugee policy nor external support, but because of their own passion to learn along with self-sustained income generating activities.