A Special AU summit on refugees, returnees and internally displaced peoples opens in Kampala today.
Under the theme “African Union; addressing the challenge of forced displacement in Africa”, the summit will be held at the Commonwealth Resort in Munyonyo.
The heads of state summit that begins Thursday, will be opened by the chairman of the African Union, Col. Muammar Gadaffi.
Over 600 delegates from Kenya, Uganda, South Africa, Ghana, Mozambique, Somalia, DRC, Sudan, Egypt, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Botswana and Tanzania are expected to attend today’s opening session.
Foreign affairs ministry spokesperson Ambassador Guma Muganda said a full list of attending presidents was expected today.
By press time, The New Vision had learnt that Liberian president Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Rwandan premier Bernard Makuza and former South African president Nelson Mandela’s wife Graca Machel, had confirmed participation. Ministers of foreign affairs and relief and disaster preparedness are also expected at the meeting.
Sudanese president Omar el Bashir has been invited, however, by yesterday, he had not yet confirmed attendance.
The Minister of State for Disaster Preparedness, Musa Ecweru, said the summit would tackle the causes of internal displacement of people in Africa.
The continent is estimated to have 17 million internally displaced people and refugees.
The summit is expected to find solutions to curb the growing number of refugees and displaced people in Africa.
Today’s session will be addressed by the chairperson of the executive council, the commissioner for political affairs and Ugandan government representative.
The session will consider the 2008 report of the meeting of ministers in charge of forced displacement issues, consider the draft AU convention for the protection and assistance of IDPs, and draft the agenda for the heads of state.
Disaster preparedness minister Tarsis Kabwegyere said Uganda was chosen to host the summit because it has been handling issues of human displacement since the Second World War when the country hosted the Polish refugees at Mpumudde in Mukono district.
“Since then, Uganda has been hosting refugees from her neighbouring countries and beyond,” Kabwegyere said.
Besides refugees from neighbouring countries, he added, Uganda has also been handling internal displacements since 1971 following the military coup by Idi Amin.
Between 1981 and 1986, the Luweero war displaced over 500,000 people and shortly after, the Lord’s Resistance Army rebellion displaced more people in the north during the last 20 years, Kabwegyere said.
According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees external relations officer in Uganda, Needa Jehu-Hoya, the country has 143,418 refugees and asylum seekers, most of them from Sudan, DR Congo, Rwanda, Somalia, Burundi, Eritrea and Kenya .
Of these, 30,508 are Sudanese, 72,595 Congolese and 17,220 Rwandans, Jehu-Hoya said.
A total of 10,603 are from Somalia, 4,488 from Burundi and 4,100 from Eritrea.
There are also 2,337 Kenyans, while another 1,567 are from other countries.
The UN report adds that 276,000 are living in refugee settlements around the country, while 218,300 are in transit sites.
By September this year, 175,546 Sudanese and 2,498 Rwandans had been repatriated back to their countries.
Most of the refugees in Uganda cite persecution and discrimination on account of ethnicity, political affiliation and civil strife back in their home countries.
