Amnesty calls for refugee support in Uganda

By Halima Athumani

KAMPALA, Uganda (AA) - Uganda needs more help from the international community in dealing with huge numbers of refugees from South Sudan, Amnesty International said Monday.

Wealthy nations are failing to meet their obligation to support refugees fleeing civil war, the rights group said in a report ahead of a high-level donor summit this week in Kampala that aims to raise $8 billion over the next four years.

Muthoni Wanyeki, Amnesty’s regional director, said Uganda was “under incredible strain as funds dry up and thousands continue to cross from South Sudan every day.”

More than 950,000 people have fled south to Uganda from South Sudan in recent months -- most of them women and children -- but many refugee camps lack basic services such as food, water and shelter.

“These refugees must not become the latest victims of a collective and shameful failure of international cooperation,” Wanyeki said, calling on donors such as the U.S., EU, Canada, China and Japan, to provide “timely funding for refugees’ immediate and long-term needs.”

Anadolu Agency recently visited some of the refugee settlements and found shortages due funding shortfalls.

Odaru Judith, a senior nursing officer in Adjumani, said just six midwives staffed the hospital’s labour, general, post-natal and family planning services. The number of babies delivered a month has risen from 29 to 75 since the influx of refugees, she said.

“Our general ward only has ten beds, the labour room is so squeezed with one bed yet at times you have three deliveries at a time,” she told Anadolu Agency.

Tens of thousands have been killed and close to 1.8 million forced into exile since South Sudan’s on-off conflict began in December 2013.

Amnesty said only 18 percent of the required funding for South Sudanese refugees in Uganda had been met as of May.

UN agencies have since appealed for more than $1.4 billion to provide vital support by the end of the year.

Musa Ecweru, minister for refugees, told Anadolu Agency: “We want the international community to lift the pressure and repair the damage the refugees are putting on the limited resources in the communities that host them.”