Nakivale (Uganda) : an assistance that frustrates

The Saudi Arabian Embassy in Uganda has given food assistance to refugees who fled from the neighboring DRC. The other communities cringe their teeth.

INFO SOS Médias Burundi

The assistance granted to these refugees who arrived in Nakivale for the most part in 2019, is mainly made up of food.

“They are chosen by the simple fact that they are new and that they are not yet well installed and reintegrated,” according to the Office of the Ugandan Prime Minister, in charge of refugees in the country. The latter live in the areas of Rubondo and Juru.

The concerned are Congolese, from the eastern part of the DRC who essentially fled the fighting which oppose their government to the M23 rebel movement.

More than 10,000 Congolese have fled to Uganda over the past three years.

However, the said assistance caused a climate of mistrust while the other refugees especially Burundians, also newly admitted in this camp, have not yet received such an assistance.

“Why wanting to discriminate against some and favoring others while we are all refugees under the same status, vulnerable and helpless in the same way? There is angil under rock!”, believe those who have not been assisted.

“Are they poorer and more helpless than others? The answer is no. There is an unspoken in this case which risks creating a bad climate here at the camp”, say representatives of Burundian refugees before adding:” Maybe they are for political or geostrategic reasons! ” .

Among the dissatisfied, there are even those who fled in 2022 or even in 2024, especially Burundians and Sudanese.

They demand that what they call “discriminatory act” ceases to make everyone be treated in a fair way.

“[…] It is like a parent who only gives food to two of his four children whereas they are all hungry! This can even arouse criminal acts”, said some Burundians.

Nakivale has more than 140,000 refugees, including more than 33 thousand Burundians.

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part of the Nakivale camp in Uganda (SOS Médias Burundi)