U.S. Committee for Refugees World Refugee Survey 1997 - Uganda

Uganda hosted some 225,000 refugees at the end of 1996, including approximately 200,000 from Sudan, about 20,000 from Zaire, and some 5,000 from Rwanda. About 15,000 Ugandans remained refugees in Zaire. An estimated 70,000 Ugandans were internally displaced. Uprooted Ugandans Three rebel groups destabilized northern and western Uganda throughout 1996. The violence displaced an estimated 30,000 to 80,000 Ugandans in the north and 30,000 to 60,000 in the south at various times during the year. Ugandan authorities accused Sudan of providing military assistance to the insurgents. The two rebel groups operating in the north, the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) and the West Nile Bank Front (WNBF), killed nearly 200 persons and destroyed some 3,000 houses during a three-week period late in the year. An estimated 500 Ugandans and Sudanese refugees died in rebel attacks during March-August. Rebels reportedly murdered 100 primary school students and 11 teachers, and burned 50 schools, during a three-month period in mid-year. Shelling by a rebel faction temporarily pushed up to 10,000 persons from their homes in March. Tens of thousands of Ugandans uprooted by the violence fled to towns for safety, where they took up residence in schools, hotels, and in private homes. The Ugandan army reportedly stationed 30,000 troops in the north and re-enlisted 3,000 or more ex-soldiers in an effort to restore security to the area. Talks between Ugandan and Sudanese government officials to ease border insecurity produced no concrete results. A new rebel insurgency emerged in western Uganda in late 1996. The Alliance for Democratic Forces, using bases in Zaire, attacked in November and abducted 300 civilians. Tens of thousands of persons – some suffering severe wounds – fled heavy fighting between the rebels and Ugandan troops. They sought refuge on church properties, in school buildings, and in private residences of friends. Ugandan military officials subsequently declared much of western Uganda safe and said displaced families "should go back to their homes." Thousands did so. Many returnees found their property looted, either by combatants or by civilians who had returned earlier. Ugandans who fled warfare and massive human rights abuses in their country during the 1970s and 1980s continued to trickle home during 1996. About 300 Ugandan exiles repatriated from Kenya in December after more than a decade outside the country. About 6,000 Ugandan refugees repatriated from Zaire during 1995-96. Many of those same returnees fled back to Zaire later in the year. Sudanese Refugees Significant numbers of Sudanese refugees have lived in northern Uganda for years due to civil war in their own country. Large refugee movements back and forth across the porous border have become a regular occurrence in recent years, linked to the ebb and flow of Sudan's war and to security conditions in Uganda. Approximately 200,000 Sudanese refugees were in Uganda at the end of 1996 – roughly the same number as when the year began. Most lived in 35 settlements. Ugandan rebel insurgencies in the country's northern border area killed more than 100 Sudanese refugees. The WNBF rebel group specifically targeted refugee settlements for attack. Most observers were convinced that the WNBF rebels were receiving military assistance from the Sudan government to disrupt the Sudanese refugee community. Sudan authorities have regularly charged that Sudanese rebels base their operations in Uganda's refugee camps. Some 14 Sudanese refugees died in an attack by WNBF rebels in mid-April. In June, a WNBF attack on a camp of 50,000 Sudanese refugees three miles from the Sudan border caused several deaths, including of nonrefugees. Thousands of camp occupants fled, and the IFRC suspended its relief operations. In July, at least 108 refugees died and more than 1,000 were injured when LRA rebels burned their camp in a dawn raid. Many families burned to death in their homes; others were shot or died of machete wounds. Rebels warned survivors to vacate the camps permanently. Survivors fled six miles to another camp and demanded that authorities relocate them permanently to a safer place. In September and October, rebels attacked several other refugee settlements. More than 20 refugees were killed, nearly half the homes were destroyed at one site, and a UNHCR office and 14 relief vehicles were damaged or destroyed. All UN and NGO staff evacuated the area and suspended aid programs temporarily. In addition to rebel attacks, relief operations faced danger from landmines and temporary road closures, making regular food deliveries to the refugee population difficult. Tense relations between Sudan and Uganda led officials of the two countries to engage in discussions. The two governments reportedly agreed to restrict rebel groups and to move refugee camps away from the border. Neither government took action, however, and Ugandan officials subsequently denied that an official agreement existed. A USCR site visit to Uganda in 1996 concluded that UNHCR lacked an adequate number of protection officers to document the serious protection problems afflicting Sudanese refugees in northern Uganda. USCR's site visit also examined the amount of land allocated to Sudanese refugees. Government authorities have provided some 400 square miles of land for refugee settlements, with more than half available for cultivation to promote refugee self-sufficiency. Despite the generous land allotment, however, more than 65,000 Sudanese refugees remained in temporary transit camps, USCR found. Zairian Refugees Some 10,000 Zairian refugees were in Uganda when the year began. An estimated 15,000 or more Zairians entered southern Uganda during 1996, fleeing civil war and ethnic tensions in their own country. Several thousand of the new arrivals remained in Uganda a short time only, using Uganda as a travel corridor to reach safer areas of Zaire. The new arrivals who remained in Uganda at year's end occupied a transit center and two settlement sites, where UNHCR delivered food and water. Zairian refugees who arrived in mid-year brought their cattle herds with them. Rwandan Refugees Uganda hosted three groups of Rwandan refugees. The first group were Rwandan Tutsi refugees who had lived in Uganda for decades. Several thousand of them returned to Rwanda during the year. The second group consisted of several thousand Rwandan Hutu refugees who arrived in Uganda in 1994. Many of them remained at an agricultural settlement site in southern Uganda. The third group consisted of some 3,000 Rwandan Hutu refugees who fled to Uganda in December after being evicted from their camps in neighboring Tanzania, where they had lived since 1994. Ugandan authorities refused to grant refugee status to the new arrivals. Government officials demanded that the group should go back to Tanzania or repatriate to Rwanda. Ugandan authorities said the refugees had "contravened" the UN Refugee Convention by leaving their country of first asylum, Tanzania. UNHCR urged that Uganda's government should grant the new arrivals official refugee status. The Rwandans were receiving limited assistance from UNHCR and WFP at a refugee camp 160 miles south of the capital, Kampala, as the year ended. n