Uganda now hosts over 700,000 refugees

The number of refugees in Uganda has now increased to over 700,000 since the outbreak of renewed fighting in South Sudan in July, the Minister of Disaster Preparedness and Refugees, Eng. Hillary Onek has disclosed.

Before the clashes broke on July 8, the Government had reported that there were 500,000 refugees in Uganda.

The South Sudan crisis has seen Uganda receive between 2000 and 6000 refugees daily from the world's youngest nation, according to Onek

"The number is high and many are still coming and we have to look after them yet we are constrained. That is why we want to present our case to the United Nations (UN)," he noted.

According to information from the Office of the Prime Minister and United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the biggest number of refugees in Uganda are from South Sudan (close to 70%) and DRC (17%). Others are from Burundi, Somalia and Ethiopia.

The over 230,000 South Sudanese refugees who are in Uganda are currently settled in Yumbe, Adjumani, Arua and Kiryandondo districts.

Uganda is the eighth largest refugee hosting country in the World and third in Africa.

Onek said Uganda is constrained by limited resources to offer the necessary amenities, saying more international bodies need to join the humanitarian aid effort.

"The biggest numbers of refugees are children and women. They need food, schooling and medical facilities. That is why we changed the strategy of integrating humanitarian services and infrastructure development to benefit both the host communities and refugees, to promote development," he noted.

He was launching a new Oxfam project dubbed Empowering Local and National Humanitarian Actors (ELNHA) in Kampala.

The $3m (about sh3.4bn) project is a three year Oxfam project aimed at strengthening the capacity of local and national humanitarian organizations to take lead in the humanitarian response. The project funded by IKEA Foundation in Netherlands, is to end in 2018.  

He noted that 51% of  Oxfam in Uganda humanitarian funding is channeled through local actors.