Looming Crisis in Bunagana as fleeing Congolese hit 10,000

Looming Crisis in Bunagana as fleeing Congolese hit 10,000. Official sources at the Nyakabande Transit Camp in Kisoro district say the number of Congolese at the holding centre has reached 9,500.

The Acting Commissioner for Refugees in the Office of the Prime Minister Douglas Asiimwe has revealed that there is a fresh influx of Congolese refugees through the Bunagana border from the Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo and this currently stands at 10,000.

Asiimwe warns that if the situation remains the way it is, there is a likelihood of an outbreak of a pandemic in the border town of Bunagana.

Fresh fighting between Congolese government forces and rebel elements in the Eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo resumed yesterday after nearly two weeks of the ceasefire and our authoritative sources at the Nyakabande Transit Camp say the number of Congolese at the holding centre has reached 9,500 yet the facility was originally designed to handle 5000 people.

Asiimwe has said that the capacity at Nyakabande Transit Camp has been beefed up to handle about 20,000 refugees however, the biggest challenge is that some of the Congolese at Bunagana have refused to move to the camp claiming life at the camp is unbearable.

“We have enough food for now. We have medical teams at the reception centre doing the work, screening for health, and sanitation as well as Covid-19.”

It has also come to our attention that development partners like United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) are trying to respond to the gap of lack of enough accommodation at Nyakabande.

Asiimwe has called on the donor community and the international community not to abandon their obligation because the responsibility of refugees in Uganda is at the level of the Ukraine – Russia conflict where thousands of people have been displaced. UNHCR has since put the emergency in Kisoro district at a global level.

Currently, Uganda has more than 1.5 million refugees yet the financial requirement for the Refugee response plan stands at 20% which is still very low.