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UN agency begins relocating Sudanese refugees who fled attack on camp in Uganda

UN agency begins relocating Sudanese refugees who fled attack on camp in Uganda

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has begun the first phase of an operation to relocate some 24,000 Sudanese refugees who fled a brutal rebel attack in northern Uganda last month, a spokesman for the agency said today.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has begun the first phase of an operation to relocate some 24,000 Sudanese refugees who fled a brutal rebel attack in northern Uganda last month, a spokesman for the agency said today.

This week, two 27-truck convoys organized jointly by Ugandan authorities and UNHCR transported 3,017 refugees from a temporary transit facility that was sheltering survivors of the 5 August attack on the Achol-Pii refugee camp by the Lord's Resistance Army, spokesman Kris Janowski told the press in Geneva.

The refugees were taken to new sites at the existing Kyangwali refugee camp, close to Lake Albert. Another 5,000 former Achol-Pii refugees were also to be transferred to Kyangwali, where there are already nearly 7,000 refugees from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sudan, Rwanda and Kenya.

“Ugandan authorities are expected to distribute nearly 340 plots of land to the first group of refugees to arrive in Kyangwali,” Mr. Janowski said. “Authorities will also provide food ration cards to the new arrivals after registration in the camp.”

Meanwhile, an assessment mission comprising UN and Ugandan officials travelled to Arua district on Sunday to look at sites proposed by the Government for the settlement of more than 14,000 former Achol-Pii refugees temporarily settled in Kiryandongo, the spokesman reported, adding that although both locations would require the installation of basic infrastructure.