Mathias Mugisha
15 November 2008
Kampala — FIGHTING between the Congo government army and the rebels flared up recently sending refugees into Uganda. Mathias Mugisha is at the Uganda Congo border following the story.
An unknown number of Congolese refugees have settled in Bunagana, which borders Uganda, straining the chronically poor sanitation facilities in the town and making the threat of a cholera outbreak real.
"We cannot tell how many Congolese are here. Some come as others go. Maybe we have around 150," says Bunagana security officer Charles Kalitwe.
He warns that the sanitation facilities in Bunagana have been overstretched by the influx of the Congolese. "Bunagana has a history of poor sanitation and hygiene. Now facilities have been overstretched and cholera might break out. The hygiene among the Congolese is very poor," Kalitwe says as he uses his walking stick to remove rubbish submerged in a pool of stagnant water in the compound of Tisiya Nyirasafari, one of the Congolese who have rented houses in Bunagana town.
Since many Congolese in villages neighbouring Uganda have been interacting with Ugandans, doing business and intermarrying, most refugees have completely been absorbed into Ugandan communities. The Congolese speak Orunyabwisha, which is the dialect of Bafumbira, so one cannot tell who is Ugandan or Congolese.
At the moment, there are no refugee camps in Kisoro District, despite the fact that about 10,000 Congolese have crossed into the district. Most of those who crossed into Kisoro are living with relatives, while others have rented houses in Kisoro and Bunagana towns, where they are living with their families.
During the day, the refugees go back home in the DRC to work on their shambas. They return in the evening. Their children still attend school across the border. They go in the morning and return in the evening. Some of the children attend schools as far as 8km away from the border.
"Our studies have not been disrupted. Though we miss home, at least we can still study as usual and come back to sleep in Uganda," Furaha Nyiramana, an S5 student at Institut Bunagana in the DRC told Sunday Vision as she crossed the border from school into Uganda along with her colleagues.
Parents of such students who have settled in Uganda have to struggle to make sure that their children's education is not disrupted.
Tiyasi Nyirasafari, 41, rents a two-roomed house in Bunagana Market at sh15,000 per month, where she lives with her 10 children. The first born, Jean Paul Sengiyunva, is an S4 student at Institut Bunagana, which is about a kilometre from the Uganda border. Every morning, Sengiyunva and some of his siblings walk to school and return in the evenings. Their mother walks a further 15km to work on their family shamba in Kinoni Mungororero in Congo.
Nyirasafari's polygamous husband, Evarist Ntegeyiminsi, lives in Kisoro, where he has resettled his two other wives. Apart from cultivating in Congo, Niyrasafari earns some extra income from selling amamesa (palm oil), which she stores in big saucepans. During the day, her daughter displays the cooking oil in front of their house.
The environment is very dirty, characterised by brown stagnant rain water. There's a faint smell of human waste in front of Nyirasafari's house. A short distance away from the house is a dirty community toilet, which Kalitwe fears might soon be the cause of a cholera outbreak.
Since the Congolese who have rented houses in Bunagana are not registered with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), nobody knows how many they are. Kalitwe says they could be 150.
According to a report the Sunday Vision got from the UNHCR senior field co-ordinator, Yumiko Takashima in Kisoro, some 10,470 refugees had crossed into Uganda as of November 7. About 7,000 of them settled in 12 villages around Busanza about 35km from Kisoro town, where they are being hosted by the local communities. Refugees totaling 1,670 entered Uganda through Ishasha and were transferred to Nakivale refugee resettlement bringing the number of those taken to Nakivale since August to 3,470 refugees.The refugees who have settled among the communities are unwilling to be taken to Nakivale and are putting a strain on the food reserves sanitation facilities of the host communities.
According to Takashima, impassable roads due to incessant rains have also created logistical problems as UNHCR has not been able to reach most of the refugees scattered in the villages on time.
Yumiko also warned of a potential outbreak of cholera in the communities where refuges are living. " Sanitation facilities are already overstretched risking an outbreak of cholera," she said adding that UNHCR and the office of the Prime Minister are co-ordinating the development of a contingency and action plan in event of a large scale influx of up to 100,000 people.
Already the UNHCR has put up a holding centre at Nyakabanda near Kisoro town where refugees are taken for refreshments before being taken to Nakivale with 48 hours of their arrival. It remains to be seen whether the Congolese who have resettled themselves among the communities will agree to be relocated to Nakivale.
Food scarcity affects business in Kisoro
THE war-torn Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, Bunagana, is having a negative impact on the population of Kisoro. Food is getting scarce and some businesses, especially in Bunagana, are closing down.
Though the borders of the two countries are open, at least to informal crossborder traders, the war has disrupted the supply of food stuffs from the DRC Congo into Uganda.
The Eastern DRC is Kisoro's food basket. Though Kisoro has largely volcanic fertile soils, it is densely populated and the available land cannot support the entire population. Consequently, Kisoro imports bananas, beans and Irish potatoes from the DRC. In addition, a good percentage of Kisoro residents have land in Congo where they grow food. Some even own farms there.
"Business is dull. We used to sell shoes, fish, blue band, salt and many other items to the Congolese. Now they have run away from their homes. Traders who used to buy from us have nobody to sell to across the border," laments Zainab Munyeshaka, the sub-county councillor and vice-chairperson of Bunagana.
Munyeshaka runs a small restaurant in Bunagana border post trading centre where most restaurants have closed down as the proprietors find it uneconomical to keep on paying rent when they are doing no business. Munyeshaka's restaurant is still open since she operates from her own premises and does not pay rent.
Bunagana is a busy border town with the DRC, a few kilometres from Kisoro town. Before the war erupted in Congo in August, truck loads of merchandise used to rumble across the border heading to as far as Goma.
Since the consumers of Ugandan goods have run away from their homes in the DRC and the main town of Goma cut off, the volume of goods crossing the border has drastically reduced.
Instead of trucks, wooden bicycles locally called ebipiringisi are now used to ferry bananas, beans and fruits from the DRC into Uganda for domestic consumption on a small scale. Young men who operate these wooden bicycles are the ones doing brisk business.
"Business is good," says Rashid, a young man transporting sacks of fish from Uganda to the DRC on his wooden bicycle. He makes about seven such trips a day charging sh1,000 for each sack. He can transport four sacks per trip. However, mainstream business people like Munyeshaka have a different story.
"We are going to die of hunger. We used to cultivate food in Congo, now we go there cautiously. The Congolese have a lot of food, but they no longer bring it here in big quantities because back home, they are on the run. After selling their produce here, the Congolese used to buy other items from us, but everything has gone down. Kisoro cannot survive without Congo," she laments.
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