Summary: CHF 269,527 was allocated from the IFRC’s Disaster Relief Emergency Fund (DREF) on 19 June 2012 to support the Uganda Red Cross Society (URCS) in delivering immediate assistance to some 15,700 beneficiaries (2,617 households) over three months.

An upsurge of refugees’ population in Uganda was observed in April and May 2012. This is due to intensified fighting in neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) between the government and rebel factions within Eastern DRC. It was reported that the number of refugees into Uganda is most likely to rise over the next few weeks.

The URCS has been supporting the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) in refugee registration, providing hygiene promotion, conducting tracing and restoring family links, conducting distributions of the World Food Programme (WFP) food and supporting the distribution of UNHCR non food items (NFIs).

The major challenge in URCS response is the increasing number of refugees that has not been matched with an increasing in the funding. Through this DREF Update, the National Society announces that it is in the process of drafting and Emergency Appeal in order to complement the efforts of the Government and adequately respond to the needs of the refugees. Some of the operations that need to be scaled up include shelter, water and sanitation, tracing services, psychosocial trainings, and refresher trainings for Red Cross Action Teams (RCATS) in the border branches of Kasese, Kanungu, Rungugiri and Bundibugyo.