UGANDA AFRICA – The problem of refugees has been looming in the African continent for a little while now. It’s never been a problem but it seems that refugee camps aren’t doing what they are supposed to be doing. This makes the camp conditions worse than whatever countries the refugees came from.

There is section of Congolese refugees from different settlement camps in western Uganda have started returning to their home country.

According to records at Nyakabande Refugee Transit Camp in Kisoro District coordinated by the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM), about 20,004 people from 9,564 households have been relocated to the different settlement camps in Western Uganda since March 28 when fighting erupted between M23 and Congolese government forces. 

The situation worsened on June 13 when the M23 rebels took control of Bunagana border post, forcing more Congolese nationals to flee.

The Kisoro Resident District Commissioner, Hajj Shafiq Ssekandi, earlier this week said 459 Congolese refugees on Saturday returned to their country through Buzanza border post, claiming the living conditions were not favourable. The statement read as follows

“We received 459 Congolese refugees seeking to return home. They included 243 males and 216 women. Some of them claimed that they felt insecure with rumours that Ugandan authorities want to chase them away while others claimed that the treatment in the settlement camps is not good compared to last year when they were being provided with enough food, shelter and land for cultivation,”

Mr Semahoro Nteringanya, a refugee, stated the following when questioned by the media “The fact that there is no fighting in our area as of now, we have opted to return home. If fighting resumes, we shall opt to live in the established internally-displaced camps at Rwasa in our home country instead of crossing back to Uganda,”