UNHCR says no rift with government

The UN refugee agency (UNHCR) has said the abrupt expulsion of its Ugandan representative, Saihou Saidy, by the Ugandan authorities does not reflect any significant rift between UNHCR and government. Saidy was expelled following a disagreement over the relocation of Sudanese refugees. “We are agreed about the need to relocate these refugees because of overcrowding”, UNHCR spokeswoman Bushra Malik told IRIN. “We just had a small difference of opinion regarding the choice of placement." On Monday, Saidy was asked to leave Uganda after he disagreed with a government decision to move 16,000 Sudanese refugees away from Kiryandongo camp in Masindi district to Madiokollo and Ikafi camps in the West Nile region. West Nile has suffered heightened rebel activity in recent months, with the rebel Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) reportedly ambushing civilian vehicles and raiding villages. UNHCR is worried the refugees will be left vulnerable to rebel attacks. “We have some security concerns about these areas,” said Malik. “We have assurances from the government that they would provide adequate protection. But we wanted them to assess the situation a bit more than they did...What we don’t want to do is get into a political debate over this.” The refugees were among 24,000 displaced Sudanese who had to be relocated from a camp in Acholi-Pii in Pader district after a major LRA attack on the camp. Eight thousand of those were successfully settled in a camp in Hoima, by the Congo border. The rest had to be temporarily housed in Kirandongo. But Kirandongo is way over capacity. UNHCR chief Ruud Lubbers, who is currently visiting the region, said the issue had now been resolved. He told a news conference in Nairobi on Tuesday that the country representative would replaced. He added that during a meeting with Ugandan leaders it was also agreed that the Sudanese refugees would be transferred to two locations in Uganda's West Nile region which were considered safe from rebel activity.