South Sudanese refugees to be relocated within Uganda’s Rhino Camp after recent clashes

Ugandan authorities said over 3,000 South Sudanese refugees will be resettled in a new camp within Rhino Camp Refugee Settlement in Uganda’s West Nile region, away from where deadly clashes took place last month between the host community and the refugees.

The clashes which began after a disagreement over grazing land left 10 South Sudanese refugees dead and nine others injured.

 Speaking to Radio Tamazuj on Monday, the refugee desk focal person at the office of the Prime Minister, Solomon Osakan, said they have identified a new resettlement camp and have started working on demarcating and opening roads leading to the new camp.

Solomon said the move came after the refugees demanded to be relocated from Tika 1 Camp where clashes erupted earlier last month.

 The refugee desk officer said most of the affected people were not formally registered as refugees and that this has created a major challenge in tracing them, ‘We are making an effort to identify the people if the system can tell exactly who has been registered with us and making sure we register those who are willing to come back as well.’

 The new camp, called Odobu, is within Rhino Camp Refugee Settlement of Arua District in Uganda’s West Nile region.

 Pastor Joseph Ajio, a refugee leader at Rhino Camp said it was a demand by the refugees to be relocated to a new camp since they cannot live where their loved ones are buried.

 According to Pastor Ajio, 10 people are still missing and the main concern is their whereabouts and that he had forwarded the names of the missing to the authorities.