Displaced in western Uganda struggle with refugee influx

Displaced people in western Uganda’s 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 had 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 west of the country attacking villages and trading centres, killing and abducting hundreds of civilians on its way. Fear of attack drove thousands of civilians in the region out of their homes, displacing an estimated 70,000 people by 1998. By 2000, that figure had risen to 175,000, according to the RLP. While the refugees are keen to stay with their cattle and continue a familiar way of life along the border, and locals are "showing a willingness to host them" despite the difficulties, the Ugandan government has said it will not assist the refugees unless they move to a settlement about 200 km to the east. Ugandan Minister of State for Refugees Helen Aporu told IRIN that government representatives would travel to Bundibugyo this week to discuss the refugee situation, but said Ugandan law was very clear that they had to be settled in camps in order to receive help. "We can offer them assistance only once their status is clear. They have to be registered and settled so that we can go about planning for their assistance in accordance with our obligations under the Geneva Convention," Aporu said. "We cannot just allow people granted refugee status to move as they please and not keep track of them."