26 Sudanese refugees die in northwestern Uganda

KAMPALA, Sept 29, 2003 (Xinhua) — A total of 26 Sudanese refugees have died in West Nile, northwestern Uganda due to various diseases, Ugandan government newspaper The New Vision reported on Monday.

First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Disaster Preparedness and Refugees Lt. Gen. Moses Ali was quoted as saying that the refugees died of natural causes and not as a result of their transfer from Kiryandongo, western district of Masindi to West Nile.

Madi-Okollo refugee camp commandant George Kasya recently told a visiting delegation of donors that 13 refugees at the camp died of pneumonia, malaria and measles.

Thirteen others died at Ikafe in Yumbe, with two of them drowning.

Some 16,000 Sudanese refugees were relocated this month from Kiryandongo in Masindi district to Arua and Yumbe districts, northwestern Uganda.

The refugees were originally moved to Kiryandongo after they were attacked by rebels of the Lord’s Resistance Army in Acholi Pii in the northern Uganda last year.