10/09/2003

In early September, Ugandan security forces forcibly moved 16,000 Sudanese refugees from Kiriyandongo refugee camp to new locations in the West Nile region of the country. The government of Uganda initiated the relocation in an effort to find land for refugees originally displaced from the Achol-pii camp in northern Uganda in August 2002. The relocation resulted in clashes in which several refugees were injured by rubber bullets fired by Ugandan security personnel and the arrest of about 25 refugees. The Office of the UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) and aid workers were not permitted access to the refugees for several days.

Refugee descriptions of the move—having their homes burned and being herded into crowded trucks with no food or water for the long journey—suggest that the move was neither humane nor dignified. In addition, there are reports that more than 200 children were separated from their families. There are plans for the Ugandan Human Rights Commission to conduct an investigation into the government’s alleged violations of refugee rights.

Uganda has a strong record of support to refugees. It hosts a total of 190,000 refugees, of whom 160,000 are Sudanese living in refugee settlements in the northwestern part of the country, near the Nile River. The government’s official policy toward its refugees is the Self Reliance Strategy (SRS). SRS mandates that refugees grow their own food on land provided them by the government and that refugees should be integrated into government services such as health and education. Thus, many of the Sudanese refugees are able to live in the Ugandan countryside in a manner familiar to them in their homeland—as poor subsistence farmers. In many cases, UNHCR helps the local government provide schools, health clinics, water points, and other services that also serve Ugandan nationals. Relations between the local and refugee communities seem good. The SRS also has financial benefits for aid agencies. Many refugees are self-sufficient in food and thus do not need international food assistance, leading to a savings of millions of dollars.

The Achol-pii refugees were transported first to transit centers at Ikafe and Madie Okollo in West Nile. Refugees International visited the transit center at Ikafe on September 23. Only a few hundred of the refugees were still present. Most had already been processed and trucked out to their new plots of land. Conditions in the transit center were poor; shelter consisted of a few tents, with inadequate water and sanitation. Many refugees expressed anger at the high-handed way in which they were moved and the disruption in their lives, but they were more concerned about their future and the services that would be available to them. As one refugee explained, “It was terrible how they moved us. They moved us like cows onto the trucks. But we are here now, and we want to look forward.” Secondary school students, in particular, were concerned because they had missed exams, and education is very important to Sudanese.

RI also visited refugees who had left the transit center and were already living in their new, makeshift communities. The newly arrived refugees had erected crude huts and tents, cleared ground, and had even managed to plant a few crops, although it will be months before they will be able to grow enough food to feed themselves. They complained of shortages of water and other services, but seemed to be settling in quickly in their new environment. Refugees are once again starting their lives from scratch, and NGOs and UNHCR will need significant resources to build the infrastructure that will enable refugees to become self-sufficient. UNHCR has requested an additional $1.3 million to meet the needs of the newly relocated refugees.

Security is the major problem affecting many of the refugees living near Adjumani, just east of the Nile River. Violent raids by the insurgent Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) on refugee settlements intensified in July 2002. Refugees were killed, kidnapped, and displaced in the attacks, which have continued sporadically, and aid agencies were forced to restrict their movements and location. Attacks on the refugee settlements coincide with a deteriorating security situation in most of northern Uganda. UN and NGO staff believe that LRA attacks occur when UPDF (Ugandan Peoples Defense Forces) soldiers are moved from Adjumani to other parts of northern Uganda. Because of shortages of UPDF soldiers, additional raids on refugee camps can be expected.

Progress in peace talks in the long civil war in Sudan have given some people hope that Sudanese refugees may be able to return home in the future. However, based on our talks with refugees, they are doubtful that conditions in Sudan will become favorable for their return to Sudan soon, and thus few are likely to rush home as soon as peace is declared.

The brutal and precipitous movement of refugees from Kiriyandongo to the West Nile region is a stain on Uganda’s fine record of receiving and caring for refugees. Indeed, compared to other refugees in Africa, the Sudanese refugees in Uganda are better off than average in terms of their access to land, livelihood, and social services. The recent government action forcibly moving refugees was hopefully an aberration rather than a harbinger of new, anti-refugee policies. Uganda has a respected international reputation that it should not jeopardize. 

Refugees International, therefore, recommends that:

• UNHCR, governments, and donors continue to express their concern to the government of Uganda about the unnecessarily harsh transfer of refugees from Kiriyandongo to the West Nile region and encourage an investigation into the government’s alleged violation of refugee rights. 
• Donors fund UNHCR’s $1.3 million request to meet the needs of the newly relocated refugees in Ikafe and Madie Okollo.  The newly transferred refugees from Kiriyandongo will need food aid for several months until they can harvest crops. NGOs will require funding to build schools, clinics, and boreholes (used in exploratory well drilling).
• Donors continue their support to UNHCR, World Food Program (WFP), and other organizations to help refugees and host communities in Uganda. Health, education and other services provided to refugees and host communities are barely adequate in most settlements we visited.
• UNHCR and the donor community develop contingency plans and be prepared to rush emergency aid if renewed LRA attacks on refugee settlements cause refugees to flee their homes or reduce their ability to grow food. Insecurity is worsening in much of northern Uganda and could quickly destroy the refugees’ already-precarious livelihoods.