Is Uganda the world’s best place for refugees?
Is Uganda the world’s best place for refugees?
Once refugees themselves, Ugandans look to ‘return the good’ to people fleeing war in South Sudan by offering land and help
Nyumanzi resettlement camp in northern Uganda. Photograph: Isaac Kasamani/AFP/Getty Images
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A mix of Afrobeat and South Sudanese folk music resounds over the jumbled stalls and makeshift corrugated iron shops that form the trading centre of Nyumanzi, a sprawling refugee settlement in northern Uganda.
The settlement is home to more than 20,000 men, women and children who have arrived from bordering South Sudan, the world’s newest country, where conditions have been compared to Rwanda in the run-up to the genocide.
People who now call Nyumanzi home talk of leaving behind hunger, torture, looting and killings. Boys were forcibly recruited to join the fighting, women and girls raped.
But in coming to Uganda, they have struck lucky. Almost 400,000 people have fled to the country since July when violence resumed in South Sudan. They are treated perhaps better than refugees anywhere in the world.
“I call Uganda my second home,” says Jacob Yout Achiek, 36, who fled the South Sudanese capital, Juba, in 2013 and now runs a grocery shop.
“The office of the [Ugandan] prime minister is like our government. If you have a problem, you call them and they will respond immediately.”
In the past, Ugandans have had to flee to other countries for their safety, says Godfrey Byaruhanga, co-ordinator of refugee services for the government. Now it their obligation to “return the good”.
“Most of our leaders have been refugees, so it has been easy for them to embrace this refugee policy,” he says.
This attitude is in contrast to other African countries struggling to cope with rising refugee numbers. In Kenya, home of the world’s largest and oldest refugee camp, Dadaab, refugees cannot legally work and their movements are limited.
They also live under constant threat that the camp will close.
While the majority of refugees in Uganda are South Sudanese, another 300,000 are from Burundi, Rwanda, Somalia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Byaruhanga says refugees have the right to work and are entitled to the same social services as locals, including free primary education and healthcare.
They are given small plots to farm in settlements scattered across northern Uganda, which the government does not call camps to emphasise the freedom of movement refugees have - and that they are welcome to stay.
Amou Deng was pregnant with her fourth child when she left Bor, north of Juba, on foot in the rainy season. She does not know whether her husband is alive because they were separated in the 2013 conflict. In January 2014 she arrived in Nyumanzi.
Deng joined a farming group that provided funding and support to help her grow maize, beans and spinach. As well as “providing us with food, we can also sell some [vegetables] to get money for other needs,” she says.
Achiek also got help to start his shop, a loan of $570 (£465) from the Lutheran World Federation, which works with the UN refugee agency and others.
His shop is well stocked with South Sudanese products from newly arrived refugees and Ugandan traders brave enough to venture across the border. The grant helped the business develop, says Achiek. “It’s now worth 5m shillings [$1,430].”
Achiek has also gone back to school, joining his children at Nyumanzi primary. Abuni Samuel, one of Achiek’s Ugandan teachers, says refugees have become “like brothers” and helped business in the area.
A recent study by the UN World Food Programme concurs, pointing out that refugees “benefit those countries that welcome them and give them what they need to build new lives”.
But even a country with a stated open-door approach finds its key services stretched by the sheer number of new arrivals. About 80% of the pupils at the Nyumanzi primary school are refugees.
“They sleep three or four in a room … they can’t revise properly. Then we are teaching them in two classrooms - where they are over 70 - so class management becomes difficult,” says Samuel.
Winifred Kiiza, leader of the opposition in parliament, complains that classrooms are so packed that children struggle to learn. On a visit to the settlement she said some refugees had had to return to South Sudan because there was not enough food in Uganda.
One local farmer, who did not want to give their name, is worried that there will not be any land left for Ugandans. The government has also been forced to cut food rations for those who arrived before 2015 and halve the size of farming plots due to demand.
Refugees also say there is no long-term plan for them. Deng says her land is not big enough to become self-sufficient but that she has no choice but to stay in Uganda. She has no husband and no home in South Sudan - only memories of fear.
SOURCE 1.
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OP: It's important to note the following, however.
-Uganda at 'breaking point' from S Sudan refugee crisis. UN calls for urgent $250m as numbers of refugees fleeing violence and famine could surpass a million before mid-2017. "The United Nations has warned that Uganda is at a "breaking point" as almost 3,000 refugees pour into the country each day from South Sudan, fleeing violence and famine in the world's youngest country."
More information on this can also be found here (i.e. at UNHCR, from March 2017). In February, UNHCR was reporting that refugees fleeing South Sudan "top[ped] 1.5 mllion. As violence surges, South Sudanese refugee population in Uganda more than triples in six months to 698,000". (OP: UNHCR is the UN Refugee Agency.)
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OP: Meanwhile, in South Sudan... (The following article is from March 2017)
South Sudan keeps buying weapons amid famine: UN
South Sudan's government rejects UN report accusing it of buying weapons despite country descending into famine.
At least half - "and likely substantially more" - of the country's budget expenditures are devoted to security including arms purchases, according to the UN report [Reuters]
-----------------------
The government of South Sudan is spending its oil revenue on weapons, even as the country descends into a famine largely caused by Juba's military operations, according to a confidential United Nations report.
The report by a panel of experts, whose findings were dismissed by South Sudan's government, calls for an arms embargo on the country - a measure rejected by the Security Council during a vote in December.
"Weapons continue to flow into South Sudan from diverse sources, often with the coordination of neighbouring countries," said the 48-page report, seen by the AFP and Reuters news agencies on Friday.
The experts found a "preponderance of evidence (that) shows continued procurement of weapons by the leadership in Juba" for the army, the security services, militias and other "associated forces".
South Sudan derives 97 percent of its budget revenue from oil sales. From late March to late October 2016, oil revenues totalled about $243m, according to calculations from the panel.
At least half, "and likely substantially more", of the country's budget expenditures are devoted to security including arms purchases, the report said.
INTERACTIVE: Mapping six months of hunger in the Horn of Africa
The government of President Salva Kiir continued to make arms deals as a famine was declared in parts of Unity state, where at least 100,000 people are dying of starvation, the experts said.
"The bulk of evidence suggests that the famine in Unity state has resulted from protracted conflict and, in particular, the cumulative toll of repeated military operations undertaken by the government in southern Unity beginning in 2014," said the report.
Later on Friday, South Sudan's government rejected the allegations in the report.
"We have not bought arms for the last of two to three years," government spokesman Michael Makuei Lueth told reporters after a cabinet meeting.
"We have rights to buy arms for self-protection or self-defence ... So this idea of the UN saying the government of South Sudan doesn't care about its people and they are fan of buying arms all the time is not correct," he said.
The annual report of the sanctions monitors to the 15-member security council comes in advance of a ministerial meeting of the body on South Sudan next Thursday, which is due to be chaired by British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson.
In December, the Security Council failed to adopt a US-drafted resolution to impose an arms embargo and further sanctions on South Sudan despitewarnings by UN officials of a possible genocide.
READ MORE: South Sudan famine - Eating water lilies to survive
The South Sudanese government is known to be blocking access for humanitarian aid workers, compounding the food crisis, while significant population displacement is also contributing to the famine.
After gaining independence from Sudan in 2011, South Sudan descended into war in December 2013, leaving tens of thousands dead and 3.5 million people displaced.
A surge in fighting since July has devastated food production in areas that had been stable for farmers, such as the Equatorial region, considered the country's breadbasket.
SOURCE 2.
Some additional links:
- South Sudan: A forgotten conflict? (This was a post of mine to this comm, which gave some background on the conflict there.)
-Another (more recent) post of mine on this conflict is here.
- Why are there still famines? (This was yet another post of mine, which dealt with the current famine in several African countries as well as Yemen.)
(OP: Again, please note that I am not linking to so many of my posts because I think they're (or I'm) amazing, it's just that I can find them easily and I know I found some good sources on this which might be helpful to readers.)
OP: Sad news, but the world doesn't seem to care... (Although Ugandans could teach rich western nations a thing or two.)
Once refugees themselves, Ugandans look to ‘return the good’ to people fleeing war in South Sudan by offering land and help
Nyumanzi resettlement camp in northern Uganda. Photograph: Isaac Kasamani/AFP/Getty Images
--------------------------
A mix of Afrobeat and South Sudanese folk music resounds over the jumbled stalls and makeshift corrugated iron shops that form the trading centre of Nyumanzi, a sprawling refugee settlement in northern Uganda.
The settlement is home to more than 20,000 men, women and children who have arrived from bordering South Sudan, the world’s newest country, where conditions have been compared to Rwanda in the run-up to the genocide.
People who now call Nyumanzi home talk of leaving behind hunger, torture, looting and killings. Boys were forcibly recruited to join the fighting, women and girls raped.
But in coming to Uganda, they have struck lucky. Almost 400,000 people have fled to the country since July when violence resumed in South Sudan. They are treated perhaps better than refugees anywhere in the world.
“I call Uganda my second home,” says Jacob Yout Achiek, 36, who fled the South Sudanese capital, Juba, in 2013 and now runs a grocery shop.
“The office of the [Ugandan] prime minister is like our government. If you have a problem, you call them and they will respond immediately.”
In the past, Ugandans have had to flee to other countries for their safety, says Godfrey Byaruhanga, co-ordinator of refugee services for the government. Now it their obligation to “return the good”.
“Most of our leaders have been refugees, so it has been easy for them to embrace this refugee policy,” he says.
This attitude is in contrast to other African countries struggling to cope with rising refugee numbers. In Kenya, home of the world’s largest and oldest refugee camp, Dadaab, refugees cannot legally work and their movements are limited.
They also live under constant threat that the camp will close.
While the majority of refugees in Uganda are South Sudanese, another 300,000 are from Burundi, Rwanda, Somalia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Byaruhanga says refugees have the right to work and are entitled to the same social services as locals, including free primary education and healthcare.
They are given small plots to farm in settlements scattered across northern Uganda, which the government does not call camps to emphasise the freedom of movement refugees have - and that they are welcome to stay.
Amou Deng was pregnant with her fourth child when she left Bor, north of Juba, on foot in the rainy season. She does not know whether her husband is alive because they were separated in the 2013 conflict. In January 2014 she arrived in Nyumanzi.
Deng joined a farming group that provided funding and support to help her grow maize, beans and spinach. As well as “providing us with food, we can also sell some [vegetables] to get money for other needs,” she says.
Achiek also got help to start his shop, a loan of $570 (£465) from the Lutheran World Federation, which works with the UN refugee agency and others.
His shop is well stocked with South Sudanese products from newly arrived refugees and Ugandan traders brave enough to venture across the border. The grant helped the business develop, says Achiek. “It’s now worth 5m shillings [$1,430].”
Achiek has also gone back to school, joining his children at Nyumanzi primary. Abuni Samuel, one of Achiek’s Ugandan teachers, says refugees have become “like brothers” and helped business in the area.
A recent study by the UN World Food Programme concurs, pointing out that refugees “benefit those countries that welcome them and give them what they need to build new lives”.
But even a country with a stated open-door approach finds its key services stretched by the sheer number of new arrivals. About 80% of the pupils at the Nyumanzi primary school are refugees.
“They sleep three or four in a room … they can’t revise properly. Then we are teaching them in two classrooms - where they are over 70 - so class management becomes difficult,” says Samuel.
Winifred Kiiza, leader of the opposition in parliament, complains that classrooms are so packed that children struggle to learn. On a visit to the settlement she said some refugees had had to return to South Sudan because there was not enough food in Uganda.
One local farmer, who did not want to give their name, is worried that there will not be any land left for Ugandans. The government has also been forced to cut food rations for those who arrived before 2015 and halve the size of farming plots due to demand.
Refugees also say there is no long-term plan for them. Deng says her land is not big enough to become self-sufficient but that she has no choice but to stay in Uganda. She has no husband and no home in South Sudan - only memories of fear.
SOURCE 1.
---------------------------
OP: It's important to note the following, however.
-Uganda at 'breaking point' from S Sudan refugee crisis. UN calls for urgent $250m as numbers of refugees fleeing violence and famine could surpass a million before mid-2017. "The United Nations has warned that Uganda is at a "breaking point" as almost 3,000 refugees pour into the country each day from South Sudan, fleeing violence and famine in the world's youngest country."
More information on this can also be found here (i.e. at UNHCR, from March 2017). In February, UNHCR was reporting that refugees fleeing South Sudan "top[ped] 1.5 mllion. As violence surges, South Sudanese refugee population in Uganda more than triples in six months to 698,000". (OP: UNHCR is the UN Refugee Agency.)
----------------------------
OP: Meanwhile, in South Sudan... (The following article is from March 2017)
South Sudan keeps buying weapons amid famine: UN
South Sudan's government rejects UN report accusing it of buying weapons despite country descending into famine.
At least half - "and likely substantially more" - of the country's budget expenditures are devoted to security including arms purchases, according to the UN report [Reuters]
-----------------------
The government of South Sudan is spending its oil revenue on weapons, even as the country descends into a famine largely caused by Juba's military operations, according to a confidential United Nations report.
The report by a panel of experts, whose findings were dismissed by South Sudan's government, calls for an arms embargo on the country - a measure rejected by the Security Council during a vote in December.
"Weapons continue to flow into South Sudan from diverse sources, often with the coordination of neighbouring countries," said the 48-page report, seen by the AFP and Reuters news agencies on Friday.
The experts found a "preponderance of evidence (that) shows continued procurement of weapons by the leadership in Juba" for the army, the security services, militias and other "associated forces".
South Sudan derives 97 percent of its budget revenue from oil sales. From late March to late October 2016, oil revenues totalled about $243m, according to calculations from the panel.
At least half, "and likely substantially more", of the country's budget expenditures are devoted to security including arms purchases, the report said.
INTERACTIVE: Mapping six months of hunger in the Horn of Africa
The government of President Salva Kiir continued to make arms deals as a famine was declared in parts of Unity state, where at least 100,000 people are dying of starvation, the experts said.
"The bulk of evidence suggests that the famine in Unity state has resulted from protracted conflict and, in particular, the cumulative toll of repeated military operations undertaken by the government in southern Unity beginning in 2014," said the report.
Later on Friday, South Sudan's government rejected the allegations in the report.
"We have not bought arms for the last of two to three years," government spokesman Michael Makuei Lueth told reporters after a cabinet meeting.
"We have rights to buy arms for self-protection or self-defence ... So this idea of the UN saying the government of South Sudan doesn't care about its people and they are fan of buying arms all the time is not correct," he said.
The annual report of the sanctions monitors to the 15-member security council comes in advance of a ministerial meeting of the body on South Sudan next Thursday, which is due to be chaired by British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson.
In December, the Security Council failed to adopt a US-drafted resolution to impose an arms embargo and further sanctions on South Sudan despitewarnings by UN officials of a possible genocide.
READ MORE: South Sudan famine - Eating water lilies to survive
The South Sudanese government is known to be blocking access for humanitarian aid workers, compounding the food crisis, while significant population displacement is also contributing to the famine.
After gaining independence from Sudan in 2011, South Sudan descended into war in December 2013, leaving tens of thousands dead and 3.5 million people displaced.
A surge in fighting since July has devastated food production in areas that had been stable for farmers, such as the Equatorial region, considered the country's breadbasket.
SOURCE 2.
Some additional links:
- South Sudan: A forgotten conflict? (This was a post of mine to this comm, which gave some background on the conflict there.)
-Another (more recent) post of mine on this conflict is here.
- Why are there still famines? (This was yet another post of mine, which dealt with the current famine in several African countries as well as Yemen.)
(OP: Again, please note that I am not linking to so many of my posts because I think they're (or I'm) amazing, it's just that I can find them easily and I know I found some good sources on this which might be helpful to readers.)
OP: Sad news, but the world doesn't seem to care... (Although Ugandans could teach rich western nations a thing or two.)