Steven Candia
12 November 2008
Kampala — More than 1,000 Congolese refugees have entered Uganda in the last three days. This follows renewed clashes in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, raising concern of aid agencies.
Many of the Congolese arrived on Tuesday morning, raising the number of refugees who have fled into the country since August to 12,000. More than 3,000 of them have came in the country in the last three weeks.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees external relations officer, Roberta Ruso, said the refugees who entered Uganda came through Ishasha in Kanungu.
"Many of them say they have been walking for two weeks," Ruso said.
She added that only about 490 of the new arrivals hadaccepted to be transferred to the Nakivale refugee settlement, while the rest opted to stay with the local communities, which was a problem.
By last week, about 3,000 refuges had been transferred to Nakivale, while 7,000 were settled in villages around the border town of Busanza in Kisoro district.
"We are providing those who are willing to go to Nakivale with oatmeal, but we are facing an acute water problem," Ruso said.
She said other aid agencies such as Unicef had embarked on a vaccination sensitisation campaign, urging refugees to vaccinate their children.
"We are also promoting hygiene to guard against an outbreak of cholera," Ruso said.
Many refugees enter through Kisoro and Kanungu districts.
At a joint press briefing last week, the Minister for Disaster Preparedness, Relief and Refugee, Prof. Tarsis Kabwegyere and the commission's country representative, Stefano Severe, warned of looming food shortage in the area and a rise in the number of refugees.
The commission recently appealed for $900,000 to deal with the increasing number of refugees
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