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Uganda, Strapped for Funds, Admits 4,000 Refugees From DRC

Halima Athumani

   KAMPALA, UGANDA - Ahead of Saturday's World Refugee Day, Uganda
   admitted another 4,000 people fleeing clashes in the neighboring
   Democratic Republic of the Congo, but a top Ugandan official said more
   funding was needed to support the new refugees, 44 of whom have tested
   positive for COVID-19.

   At a recent news conference in Kampala, Hilary Onek, Uganda's minister
   for relief, disaster and refugees, accused some members of the
   international community of causing conflict in countries such as the
   DRC and South Sudan.

   Onek said that even though Uganda had said it would not accept more
   refugees until after the COVID-19 pandemic passed, thousands of
   refugees from the DRC were stuck in the no-man's land in Zombo
   district, northern Uganda.

   "What the government has done deliberately is move in and cordon off
   those 4,000 and take them to a school somewhere, away from the border,
   where they are now being screened from Zombo," Onek said. "If the
   international community will not cooperate with us to get a solution on
   how to manage these refugees, we might have to be forced to return them
   back to their countries. Because we don't have the money. As a
   government, our budgets are very lean."

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