Reporting
Uganda: several hundred displaced Congolese take refuge in Nakivale camp
In the DRC, fighting has resumed in recent days in the east of the country between government forces and M23 rebels.
Violence which regularly provokes population movements: nearly a million people have found refuge in displaced persons camps.
Some even take the route of exile, notably to neighboring Uganda.
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A sign at the entrance to the reception center for refugees settling in Nakivale camp, Uganda, March 6, 2024. © Paulina Zidi / RFI
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With our special correspondent in Nakivale,
Paulina Zidi
“
They have just arrived from Nyakabande
.”
Jennipher Nshemeriwa, manager of the Nakivale reception center - one of the oldest and largest refugee camps in
Uganda
, in the south-west of the country - watches buses enter from a transit camp, close to the Congolese border.
On board, more than
400 newcomers
who will spend several days here, time to register.
This is the case of Paul, his wife and his children: “
I went through Goma, Bunagana, until here.
I came here to
seek security
,” he confides.
Arriving in Uganda on February 6, Paul and his family say they stayed in the Nyakabande transit camp for between two and three weeks.
Today, all of the new arrivals come from Congo, which is not the case for all the refugees from Nakivale.
“
The majority are Congolese, but we also have Burundian refugees, Ethiopians, Somalis and also Sudanese, from northern Sudan
,” reports Emma Kolowi, a reception manager.
“
I chose to come myself
”
Among the new refugees getting off the bus and lining up to register, there is François, just 18 years old,
from Rutshuru
, in North Kivu: “
Yes, we are happy to arrive here in Uganda.
»
François explains
that he arrived alone,
without his family, in Nakivale.
“
When I got home from school, I came home and my family was already gone.
I chose to come myself
,” he says.
The young man, without news of his loved ones, does not know if they also managed to come to this neighboring country.
One thing is certain for Francis: “
Now we are going to live here, in Uganda.
» Now, he hopes to quickly learn English to resume his studies here in Uganda.
Read alsoDRC: in Bukavu, a demonstration against the war in the East and to demand diplomatic sanctions from Kinshasa
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