In flight, households and family members are often separated. Women are forced to flee without male family members who are left behind to fight. In northern Uganda, for example, Sudanese women refugees are left alone to manage households without their husbands. Previously dependent on farming in Sudan, these women are left alone with no alternative sources of support. Men's and women's roles, developed over time to suit the environment and the economy where they evolved, are so disrupted that the family may become dysfunctional.
Marriage is an integral part of family formation.
The initiation of marriage assumes various forms in different African cultures, including pre-nuptial economic arrangements in many societies. These economic transactions create essential bonds of kinship and help to ensure the endurance of family unions formed through the alliance of marriage. In the refugee setting, these traditional arrangements are often not possible. Research among refugee communities in Ethiopia, for example, has revealed problems among both Sudanese and Somali populations because of the breakdown of traditional marriage arrangements. When Nuor and Dinka Sudanese men were unable to afford cattle for the traditional payment to the bride's family, they began to abduct their brides illegally.