Archbishop of Canterbury visits S. Sudanese camps in Uganda

(Credit: Godfrey Ojore)

RELIGION | ANGLICAN CHURCH

Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, the most senior bishop in the Church of England, touched down at Moyo Airfield Wednesday morning, set for a visit to two camps in Adjumani and Moyo.

He was warmly welcomed by religious leaders, government officials including minister of state for disaster preparedness Musa Ecweru as well as pupils of Erupi Primary School and students of Erupi Primary Teachers College.

Archbishop Welby flew into the country Tuesday evening ahead of his scheduled trip to the northen part of Uganda.

Archbishop Welby flew to Moyo with Church of Uganda Archbishop Stanley Ntagali

Earlier, on Tuesday, Rev. Hosea Odongo told New Vision that Archbishop Welby was from South Sudan where he had gone to inaugurate the new Anglican Church province which comprises of five dioceses.

Odongo said the Archbishop of Cantebury was to visit refugees from South Sudan living in Bela Meling in Moyo district and Mireyi in Adjumani, in northern Uganda.

"After visiting those two camps, the Archbishop will return to meet President [Yoweri] Museveni before he departs in the evening," he said.

Minister Ecweru, who received the visiting Archbishop at Moyo Airfield, is set to take him around the two refugee camps.

"We got a communication from the church that the Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury expressed interest to visit the two camps in Ajumani and Moyo and it is the reason I travelled early," he said on Tuesday.

Asked why the Anglican leader had focused on the two camps, Ecweru said that it was the church's arrangement and not government's.

It is barely a month since Uganda hosted the world refugee conference attended by high profile leaders from across the world, including UN secretary general António Guterres.

Currently, Uganda is one of the leading refugee-hosting nations in the world.

Earlier, bishops from West Nile and South Sudan were pictured at Moyo Airfield awaiting the arrival of Archbishop Welby

Minister Ecweru speaking to the clerics