Discussions underway to resettle Sudanese refugees

The Ugandan authorities and the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, have said they are finalising plans to resettle some 24,000 Sudanese refugees who were displaced from their camp in northern Uganda in early August, following an attack by the rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA). The refugees, who fled the Acholi-Pii camp in Pader district, were all initially due to be transferred from their temporary site in Kiryandongo, western Uganda, to Kyangwali, a camp further south in neighbouring Hoima district. The camp is already home to some 7,000 refugees from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Burundi, Sudan, and Kenya. However, it appears the plans have changed. UNHCR on Monday said it had begun the relocation of some 8,000 Acholi-Pii refugees from Kiryandongo to Kyangwali. In a statement, it said it was also negotiating with the Ugandan authorities for a new site for the remaining 14,000 who were still at the transit site. "The refugees transferring to Kyangwali are very positive about the move," UNHCR's acting representative in Uganda, Juan Castro-Magluff, told IRIN. "They are happy to go southwards." However, a senior Ugandan government official told IRIN he was not keen on transferring the Sudanese refugees to Kyangwali because the local Bantu culture was incompatible with their way of life. He said this had already resulted in a number of ethnic clashes in the camp earlier this year. Martin Owuor, the assistant commissioner for disaster management within the Office of the Prime Minister, said the Ugandan government was instead considering settling the Sudanese refugees in designated safer sites in the north "where their Nilotic culture is more compatible with that of the local Nilotic populations". But according to Magluff, some of the refugees have expressed concern about their safety if they are relocated to sites in the north. He said he was awaiting the results of an assessment team which was currently in the field. "We are working together with the Ugandan government for the benefit of all the refugees," Magluff said.