To date, this Emergency Appeal, which seeks CHF 3,000,000, is 8 percent funded. Further funding contributions are needed to enable the Uganda Red Cross Society in the region, with the support of the IFRC, to continue responding and provide humanitarian assistance and protection to people on the move.
A. SITUATION ANALYSIS
Description of the crisis
Kisoro District
Fighting in Northern Kivu and Ituri in DRC on March 28, 2022, forced people to flee to Uganda through the Bunagana border and settled in Kisoro district. These are mainly children, women, and young people.
A day after the fighting erupted on the 29th of July 2022, an estimate of 41,027 individuals (21,154 Households) were received at both the holding and transit centers Although most of the asylum seekers still live in the host community, the current estimate is at 17,781 individuals of which 2,196 were at the transit center and 15,585 at the holding center.
Despite the efforts by the office of the Prime Minister and UNHCR to have the asylum seekers move to the centers and onward relocation, this has not yielded much, therefore, leaving the host communities to compete with refugees with limited essential and social services like water, health, food, and sanitation.
Kasese District
Asylum seekers from the Eastern DRC-North-Kivu crossed into Uganda through kitholhu, Karambi, and Mpondwe sub-counties in Kasese District on Sunday 3 April 2022. About 3,220 individuals/asylum seekers crossed to Uganda through various porous borders and temporarily resettled in the villages of Kisololo, Busigha, Kasinga, Kisebere, Kiraro, etc. in Kasese district.
Out of 3,220 refugees, 1,233 of them were officially registered at Bwera Holding Centre which was established on 5 April 2022. The rest remained in host communities for fear of being relocated to refugee settlements. Emergency response services were offered to those refugees at Bwera Holding Center by responding agencies including UNHCR, UNWFP, Office of the Prime Minister (OPM), CAFOMI, Medical Teams International (MTI), ALIGHT, Uganda Red Cross Society, ICRC, AIRD, GEDA-Uganda, Kasese Scouts, Uganda Peoples Defense Force (UPDF) and Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) among others.
The situation in DRC remains unpredictable, 2 weeks back from 26 July 2022 in North Kivu, attacks were made by Mai Mai rebels in Luma town in North Kivu and burnt down Luma Hospital killing over 7 people. This forced asylum seekers to cross to Uganda in the villages of Kasinga, Kahuhu Kanyatsi, and Kiraro in the Kitholu sub-county in Bwera where they were hosted before relocation to Nakivale and Rwamwanja settlements.
On the 26th of July, three killings were also reported across Lhubiriha in DRC putting Kasese District on high alert of receiving more refugees as witnessed in April 2022.
Bundibugyo District
In March 2022 there was an ADF rebel attack on the people of Nobili, Njiapande, Kamango, and Ituri in DRC that gradually spread to areas of Bugando town, Gogo, Kitendera, Kikura, Kayanje, Kitemba in Butalinga border communities in DRC which border Bundibugyo district in Uganda. Since then, there have been on and off attacks on the people of DRC characterized by Killings, burning houses, and looting of properties, among others forcing people to flee to Uganda through the 21 nearest porous border points mainly of Busunga, Bundingoma, Sindla, kisuba, and Nyahuka in Bundibugyo District.
Bundibugyo is currently hosting refugees who came in and refused to be evacuated to the transit center and opted to stay with the host communities citing various reasons that are not favorable for them at the holding and settlement camps. From the latest assessments conducted by URCS and DDMC (District Disaster Management Committee), there are 29,243 refugees recorded to be living within Busunga, Bundingoma, Sindila, Kisuba, and Nyahuka sub-counties inside Bundibugyo District.
This has resulted in poor health, hygiene, and sanitation practices characterized by open defecation, poor waste disposal, poor water source management, lack of food leading to malnutrition among refugee children, safety/security issues, negative effects on the environment, Gender, and Protection.