Kampala, Uganda | RONALD MUSOKE | The World Health Organization (WHO) has called for greater access to COVID-19 detection, testing and care among vulnerable populations grappling with the impacts of protracted conflict and humanitarian emergencies across Africa. Speaking during a virtual press conference organized by the World Health Organization …
Read More »Less than half of all refugee children enrolled in school-UN Agencies
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Less than half of all school-aged refugee children are enrolled in school, with that dropping to one in four for secondary school, according to a joint statement by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and the United Nations Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF). Released …
Read More »Refugee women facing greater violence risk during crisis: UNHCR
Geneva, Switzerland | AFP | Displaced women and girls are facing a heightened risk of gender-based violence during the coronavirus crisis, the UN Refugee Agency said Monday. The UNHCR said they may be forced into “survival sex” or child marriages. Lockdowns imposed to control the spread of COVID-19 have restricted movement and led to the …
Read More »Refugee influx increasing human activities on Katonga wildlife reserve
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The degradation of Katonga Wildlife Reserve is being blamed on residents picking firewood for sell to refugee neighboring communities. The chiefwarden Katonga Wildlife Reserve, Richard Godfrey Matanda says that although the communities are dependent on wood fuel for domestic use, there is an emergence …
Read More »IGP dispatches detectives to Obongi to probe shooting of police officer
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The Inspector-General of Police –IGP Martin Okoth Ochola has dispatched a team of homicide detectives to investigate the shooting of a police officer in Moyo district. Ian Natukunda, the Officer in charge Palorinya base camp police post in Obongi district was shot by a …
Read More »Almost 600 Burundian refugees return home from Tanzania
Gisuru, Burundi | AFP | Nearly 600 Burundians who fled political violence in their home country to Tanzania were on Thursday repatriated voluntarily, the UN refugee agency and witnesses said. The move came after the Tanzanian government vowed that from October 1 it would start repatriating all Burundians, willing or …
Read More »CARITAS introduces solar cookstoves to refugees in Uganda
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The Catholic Relief Agency CARITAS has intervened in the energy crisis unfolding in Bidi Bidi Refugee Settlement in Yumbe district. Bidi Bidi is the second-largest settlement in the World, hosting more than 27,000 South Sudan refugees fleeing civil wars in their country. More than 80 …
Read More »S.Sudan holds breath as fragile peace faces crucial test
Udier, South Sudan | AFP | Chol Deng, her husband and five children sit, exhausted, under a tree, having journeyed back to South Sudan five years after fleeing their corpse-strewn hometown Malakal. Encouraged by a six-month lull in fighting as a peace deal holds for the first time since 2015, …
Read More »DR Congo violence drives 16,000 into Congo-Brazzaville: UN
Geneva, Switzerland | AFP | Around 16,000 people have fled into the Democratic Republic of Congo’s neighbour after inter-communal clashes erupted last month in the southwest of the country, the UN said on Friday. Violence in Yumbi, in the DRC province of Mai-Ndombe, prompted an exodus to the neighbouring Republic …
Read More »27,000 Eritreans ‘seeking refugee status’ in Ethiopia
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia | AFP | More than 27,500 Eritreans have filed for refugee status in Ethiopia since the two countries reopened their joint border in September, according to EU documents seen by AFP on Friday. More than 24,000 people from northern Eritrea have applied for refugee status at Endabaguna, …
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