Jessica Ababiku, the Presidential Affairs Committee Chairperson tasked the Minister to avail the list of all the affected districts, how much they are getting and the list of officials misusing the funds among others.
Relief agencies say the daily arrival rate of South Sudanese refugees to Uganda has declined to roughly 120 people a day in December 2017, compared to 2,000 per day in late 2016.
Daily influx of refugees from South Sudan into Uganda continues to fall sharply over the last seven months. Titus Jogo, the Adjumani district refugee desk officer, says the decline is attributed to improving food security situation in the youngest East African country. He says on average, daily influx stands at 170 refugees compared to more than 500 people who arrived daily between January and May this year.
UN Peacekeeping chief, Jean-Pierre Lacroix observed that the conflict in South Sudan is a man-made conflict and urged that the international community builds institutions so that politics shifts from ownership by individuals to those institutions that must be accountable to the people of South Sudan.
The commitment to United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees UNHCR is to improve access to education, better housing and increased access to drinking water.
In a report launched ahead of a high-level donor summit in Uganda this week, Amnesty International says more than 900,000 refugees have fled the brutal conflict in South Sudan and sought safety in Uganda, but funding shortfalls mean that many of them are not receiving basic services such as food, water and shelter. Uganda says it needs up to eight billion US dollars in the next four years to handle refugees. It hopes to raise part of this money during the Uganda refugees Solidarity Summit co-hosted with the UN in Kampala on June 22 and 23.
UN Resident coordinator Rosa Malango says that local governments hosting refugee communities are working on stringent budgets yet they are mandated to cater for the needs of refugees and natives in their jurisdictions. Malango was speaking during a workshop on Ugandas refugee policy at Imperial Royale Hotel in Kampala today.
According to estimates, some 6,000 newly displaced arrived in Lamwo district, northern Uganda last week, after an attack on the town of Pajok, some 15 kilometers across the border, and there are fears that number could rise as fighting is reported in the bordering towns of Magwi and Oboo.
More than 1.87 million of these are displaced internally and over 1.1 million living as refugees in neighboring countries. Majority of them found shelter in Uganda, western Ethiopias Gambella region, Kenya, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Central African Republic.
The funding was announced today by Christos Stylianides, the EU commissioner for Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Management who is currently in Uganda. He is visiting the Bidibidi; a new settlement that has become one of the largest refugee-hosting areas in the world.
A host of South Sudan nationals, running away from violence, scarcity of food and financial instability caused by the renewed fighting in Juba, have settled among the communities in Arua, Koboko and Adjumani districts in Ugandas West Nile region. A number of them have also acquired property in the region.
Maj. Gen Julius Oketta, the former director of National Emergency Coordination and Operations, in the Office of the Prime Minister says that the deployment of peacekeepers will only stop direct confrontation between warring factions but cannot address the root causes of the conflict in South Sudan.
Uganda has seen a sharp increase in refugee arrivals from South Sudan since January, sometimes as many as 800 individuals per day. In all, 28,000 South Sudanese 86 per cent of them women and children have sought refuge in Uganda
The Japanese government has donated 4 million dollars to the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), to assist the Government to manage the welfare of South Sudanese Refugees. Announcing the assistance at the Prime Ministers\' office, the Japanese Ambassador to Uganda Junzo Fujita said that the South Sudanese refugees are facing untold suffering in refugee camps due to lack of funds by the UNHCR.
John Bosco Ocan, the Atiak LCIII Chairperson confirmed the development saying the refugees have resisted vacating the land and have also begun destroying nearby forests in search of firewood. Besides, the place is littered with human waste because of the limited latrine coverage, Ocan adds.
