Africa report
DRC / Uganda: Bundibugyo, first door in Uganda for Congolese refugees victims of the ADF [2/6]
Audio 02:32
A Congolese refugee and her child during lunch in Bubukwanga.
© RFI / Lucie Mouillaud
By: Lucie Mouillaud Follow
3 mins
Second episode of our series of reports on the insecurity linked to the attacks of the ADF rebel group.
Direction western Uganda, in the district of Bundibugyo, bordering the province of North Kivu in the DRC.
A few kilometers from the border, the Bubukwanga transit center has become the first entry point into Uganda for Congolese refugees fleeing ADF violence.
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When lunch rolls around, the 800 or so refugees from the transit center crowd in front of the kitchens.
Among them, in the queue, Siffa, who a few weeks earlier fled the recurring attacks of suspected ADF in his village, near Beni.
“
They come, they attack us, we run into the city to take refuge,
says Siffa.
After a week, they come to tell us that the ADF are no longer there and we go home.
Many times !
But this time, I was very tired of this situation, that's why I decided to take refuge here.
»
Every day, dozens of new asylum seekers are registered.
At the entrance, a mother and her three children are waiting to be installed in the large white tents that serve as dormitories, a few bags of clothing in their hands.
"
An attack broke out, their neighbors were killed and they managed to escape,
" explains Hedwig Arineitwe, the commander who welcomes the new arrivals from Boga in Ituri.
I explained to them that they were going to do a Covid test, and then we will register them and give them some equipment, such as a bucket, bedpans and blankets.
»
Sometimes sudden influxes of refugees
Most of the arrivals are from the neighboring Congolese provinces of Ituri and North Kivu, in the area of action of the ADF group responsible, last year, for 1,200 deaths in this region according to the United Nations.
"
They cross by Lake Albert, the Semuliki River or the Busunga post, just next door,
" says Hedwig Arineitwe.
Once there, we make an initial assessment.
Many flee the ADF, some also speak of inter-ethnic conflicts, but for most, the main cause of departure remains the ADF.
»
Closed for several years, the transit center reopened in 2021 in order to cope with daily and sometimes sudden arrivals: such as the crossing of the border, at the beginning of February, of several thousand Congolese after an attack by the ADF in the border town of Nobili.
"
We thought it was important to maintain a level of preparation in the event of an influx,
" explains Joel Boutroue, representative of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Uganda.
So, since last year, the center has received more than 8,000 new arrivals, depending on the operations between the rebels and the various armed groups, and the Congolese and Ugandan forces.
But what we know is that as soon as there are military operations, it results in refugees.
»
The refugees stay an average of two weeks in the transit center before being sent to permanent camps, such as Kyaka and Rwamwanja.
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