Over 20,000 refugees have made their way to Uganda fleeing conflict in the Republic of Sudan. Due to the influx, Kiryandongo Refugee Settlements that had been closed to new arrivals have been reopened as the verification and settlement centers for the new refugees crossing into the country.
According to the United Nations World Food Program (UNFP) Regional Director for East Africa, Mr. Michael Dunford, Uganda is currently hosting up to 1.6million refugees who fled fighting in neighboring South Sudan, Congo, Somalia, Burundi, Rwanda and now Sudan.
“We are now seeing an influx of Sudanese refugees coming from the North,” he said before adding.
“We’re trying to get them registered, relocated and establish some ability to meet their own requirements.”
“Uganda is already extraordinarily generous host of 1.6m refugees.”
He called for humanitarian support to ensure logistical and essential aid is given to the refugees, noting that they’re expecting to receive bigger numbers.
“World Food Program is providing 100% of food rations to all Sudanese refugees. Unless we get regular funding, it will be difficult to maintain to that level now at a time when we’re expecting more refugees to arrive.”
About the Sudan conflict
Sudan has been engulfed in a brutal conflict since April last year when a simmering rivalry between SAF’s General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and RSF chief Mohamed Hamdan “Hemedti” broke into an open war.
While much of the early fighting took place around the capital Khartoum, it quickly spread to other parts of the country, including the southwestern state of Darfur. There, it quickly took an interethnic dimension as old rivalries linked to the previous war that began in 2003 resurfaced.
More than a year of war has killed 14,000 people, according to United Nations estimates. The conflict has forced about nine million people to flee their homes and pushed swathes of the population to starvation. Nearly five million people are on the verge of famine, according to the World Food Programme.
