Bundibugyo feels DRC refugee strain
Nov 12, 2003
KAMPALA, 29 October – Displaced people in Bundibugyo district are struggling to cope with the arrival since March of some 11,000 refugees from the war-torn Ituri district of neighbouring Democratic Republic of the Congo, according to a report by the Kampala-based Refugee Law Project (RLP).
KAMPALA, 29 October – Displaced people in Bundibugyo district are struggling to cope with the arrival since March of some 11,000 refugees from the war-torn Ituri district of neighbouring Democratic Republic of the Congo, according to a report by the Kampala-based Refugee Law Project (RLP).
While the refugees were initially well received, researchers have discovered growing concern among impoverished local people about the long-term feasibility of the situation, said the report.
The sheer size of the refugee population relative to local people was creating a crisis in the area, it added. In Ntoroko, with a population of just 4,000, 8,000 refugees had arrived, putting tremendous pressure on scarce resources.
In the second half of the 1990s, a rebellion by the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) devastated Bundibugyo district.
Led by Sheikh Jamil Mukulu, the ADF said it wanted to redress the balance of power in Uganda’s government, which, it said, marginalised Muslims. The rebel group swept through the area attacking, killing and abducting hundreds of civilians on its way.
Ugandan Minister of State for Refugees Helen Aporu told IRIN they were addressing the situation.
- IRIN
While the refugees were initially well received, researchers have discovered growing concern among impoverished local people about the long-term feasibility of the situation, said the report.
The sheer size of the refugee population relative to local people was creating a crisis in the area, it added. In Ntoroko, with a population of just 4,000, 8,000 refugees had arrived, putting tremendous pressure on scarce resources.
In the second half of the 1990s, a rebellion by the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) devastated Bundibugyo district.
Led by Sheikh Jamil Mukulu, the ADF said it wanted to redress the balance of power in Uganda’s government, which, it said, marginalised Muslims. The rebel group swept through the area attacking, killing and abducting hundreds of civilians on its way.
Ugandan Minister of State for Refugees Helen Aporu told IRIN they were addressing the situation.
- IRIN