Hundreds of Sudanese refugees flee conflict into Uganda settlements
November 28, 2024 (KIRYANDONGO) – Life for Mahassin Mohammed Ibrahim has never been easy ever since he fled his home country Sudan, which has experienced fighting since April 2023.
Ibrahim narrates how the situation in El Fasher, North Darfur become unbearable and she fled.
She, or instance, narrated how members of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a paramilitary group fighting the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), stormed her house as she prepared meal for her family.
As the door opened, she says, a hand grenade crashed on the ground leaving her in a pool of blood.
“They asked us for money and the keys to our car outside,” Ibrahim, who now lives in Uganda’s Kiryandongo refugee settlement told the European Commission Humanitarian Aid (ECHO).
“They didn’t care if we were dying or not,” she added.
Ibrahim was rushed to a hospital with a shattered arm and life-threatening shrapnel wounds to her abdomen and legs. Her son, mother and brother, however, escaped with minor injuries.
The 39-year old mother explained how she fled El Fasher with her family on a donkey cart. The city currently houses hundreds of thousands of trapped civilians at risk of starvation and violence.
“We were lucky to get out,” Ibrahim narrated, adding “We told the soldiers at the checkpoint that we lived in a village just outside town and they let us go.”
The family managed to cross the border into Uganda through South Sudan, nearly two weeks later.
Ibrahim is now housed in a tent in the settlement’s reception centre, where the UN refugee agency (UNHCR), the EU’s partner registers hundreds of newly arrived refugees every day. Here they are also paired up with essential services like healthcare, water and sanitation and psychosocial care.
Since the beginning of the year, Uganda has reportedly received close to 120,000 individuals, including a heavy influx of Sudanese fleeing the war. To date, there is no end in sight to the 18-month conflict that has so far killed tens of thousands of people, displaced more than 11 million and triggered the world’s largest hunger crisis.
Sudanese refugees reportedly account for more than a third of the new arrivals in Kiryandongo. Like Ibrahim, many of them have undertaken a gruelling journey filled with hardship and danger.
At the refugee settlement, they receive humanitarian assistance, including food, shelter and healthcare.
Uganda is the largest refugee-hosting country in Africa with almost 1.7 million people fleeing war and natural disasters from across the continent. At the same time, it has one of the most unique refugee policies in Africa – and perhaps the world.
Refugees are granted access to land, schooling, health care, vocational training, and jobs. However, with a steady influx of refugees and resources increasingly limited, services have become overstretched.
Meanwhile, the level of global humanitarian assistance to Uganda has decreased over the years.
“The EU has allocated over €36 million in aid for 2024,” said Bruno Rotival, who oversees humanitarian programmes in Uganda. “But while we compete with other acute crises, such as Ukraine, Gaza, and Sudan, we are still confident that we will be able to maintain all our support. This includes responding to the influx of new refugees and other emergencies, such as floods and the recent outbreak of the Mpox virus.”
The EU-supported humanitarian organisations in Kiryandongo provide food, education, medical care, and other critical aid. The many schools and health facilities that have sprung up in the settlement and other remote rural areas hosting refugees are also used by the local population.
“Overall, we provide refugees and the Ugandan host communities with the same services,” Bruno said, adding “We also aim to increase the role of local organisations in responding to crises.”
(ST)