Marked increase in refugees crossing into Uganda from Sudan, UN agency reports

An increasing number of people have fled into Uganda from southern Sudan in recent weeks, mainly because of raids by the Ugandan rebel Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), raising fears that the continuing influx could stretch the country’s resources to their limits, the United Nations refugee agency warned today.

In the past month, some 3,200 Sudanese have crossed into northern Uganda, while another 1,000 registered in September, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said.

Refugees cite a growing number of LRA raids with fighting along the border intensifying in recent months as a result of a push by Ugandan and Sudanese troops to rout the rebels. A severe food shortage due to crop failure appears to be a contributing factor.

Even before the recent arrivals, Uganda was home to more than 220,000 refugees, 187,000 of whom are Sudanese, the largest concentration in Africa of refugees from south Sudan where two decades of bitter fighting between Government troops and southern rebels sent more than half a million people fleeing to other countries while forcing another 3 million from their homes.

The 18-year-old rebellion by the LRA, which is viewed as wanting to impose the Ten Commandments of the Bible as law, has forced 1.6 million Ugandans to flee their homes. The group has become particularly notorious for its practice of kidnapping children to serve as soldiers or as sexual slaves for its commanders. More than 12,000 children have been abducted since June 2002.

In April the plight of these children was included on the list of “Ten Stories the World Should Know More About,” which was compiled by the UN Department of Public Information.