Thousands of people fleeing hunger in Sudan enter northern Uganda

GULU, Oct 29, 2004 (IRIN) — An estimated 2,000 people, mainly women and children, have entered Uganda during the past three months after fleeing hunger in southern Sudan, local officials in northern Uganda said on Friday.

Sudanese refugees arriving at Kyangwali settlement in Uganda after being displaced from their original camp in Achol Pii. January 2004

“We estimate that up to 2,000 of them have crossed over to Moyo district,” Akumu Mavenjina, the Resident District Commissioner in charge of Moyo told
IRIN by telephone from Moyo town.

“Some started moving over following reports a few months ago suggesting
that the [rebel] Lord’s Resistance Army [LRA] was targeting them in
villages and killing dozens of them, but of late there has been increased
[people] and many are complaining of hunger.”

She said that many of the refugees who arrived recently reported leaving
their homes because of drought-related food shortages.

“There has been an increased number of arrivals in the past days and our
staff are up there are registering them to see how they could be taken to
refugee settlements in the region,” said Dennis Duncan, spokesman for the
UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Kampala.

An estimated 185,000 refugees who fled civil war in southern Sudan live in
refugee settlements in northern, northwestern and western Uganda.