The Minister for Relief, Disaster Preparedness and Refugees Hillary Onek has said the country has not done enough to monitor refugee funding coming from donors.
Fungaroo says the move was aimed at blocking Obongi from benefiting from the US 251 million meant for water management and infrastructural development in refugees areas and the host communities so that the money is diverted to Moyo town council.
The Office of the Prime Minister explains that 158,000 of the refugees initially on record are in unknown places, 34,000 are reported to have returned home, and 9,000 registered more than once. Another 3,000 were reported as deceased, 1,400 were Ugandans registered as refugees, and 55,000 are living in urban centers, away from the camps.
Onek says only China and India fulfilled their pledges and channeled their donations directly to government while the others said they had channeled their support through NGOs.
Josephine Angucia, the West Nile Region Police Spokesperson, says it took the intervention of police from Arua town to calm down the situation, recover the fire arm and rescue the service providers.
Peter Kyasimire, the LC 2 Chairperson Nkondo parish in Kyangwali Sub County who is part of the team receiving the Congolese at Sebigoro reception center, says they expect the number to double by Monday evening because the situation is still tense.
Over 200 refugees at the camp turned rowdy when a team from the Office of the Prime Minister and the UN refugee agency UNHCR visited the camp for a data verification exercise. The refugees accused humanitarian agencies of delaying their food distribution and starving them.
The assistance will be provided as part implementation of the Refugee and Host Population Empowerment ReHoPE strategy, part of the Comprehensive Refugee Response Framework and in line with the New York Declaration on Refugees and Migrants.
Babar Baloch, the spokesperson for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees UNHCR says that the agency is working with partner organizations in western Uganda to support the influx of the refugees, most of who are exhausted, hungry, thirsty, sick, and have fled with few or no belongings.
The UN World Food Programme WFP will receive USD 500,000 for food and nutrition support for refugees, while the UN Population Fund UNFPA will receive USD 500,000 for the provision of life-saving sexual and reproductive health services including emergency obstetrical and newborn care and response to gender-based violence.
The number of refugees fleeing the deadly Lendu-Hema conflict in Ituri province in the Democratic Republic of Congo--DRC has drastically reduced, according to United Nations High Commissioner for RefugeesUNHCR.
UNHCR says it is stretched in areas of health, water and sanitation and Hygiene Wash and nutrition. Rocco Nuri, a UNHCR officer working with Emergencies, says they are overwhelmed, adding that the situation will worsen unless they receive immediate support.
Teresa Ongalo, the Senior Regional Spokesperson UNHCR, says donors have indicated their decision to withhold funding until they are able to verify the number of refugees.
Douglas Asiimwe, the Principle Refugee Protection Officer in the Office of the Prime Minister told URN on phone that 26,900 Congolese refugees have arrived in the country from January this year from Ituri via Lake Albert while another 14,500 crossed from North Kivu to Kisoro and Kanungu districts through the porous borders.
UNHCR spokesperson Babar Baloch in a statement issued to journalists at the Palais des Nations in Geneva on Tuesday said more lives could be lost on the often perilous lake routes, as increasing numbers of refugees escape intercommunal violence and conflict, across the eastern regions of the Democratic Republic of the Congo DRC.
Grandi however, notes that although Uganda has been able to demonstrate that refugees can live within host communities and be allowed to cultivate their own food, such support could over stretch services among host communities. He notes that the patience of local communities should not overly be tested but should be made to benefit from refugee presence in their areas.
A statement from the EU delegation in Uganda says the money will be available for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies IFRC
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.
