"When the rebels came in our village, they started fighting. They killed all our parents." says Hellen Okoth, a fourteen year old beneficiary of the EU Support Programme for Refugee Settlement in Northern Uganda (SPRS-NU) programme. "Our aunt brought the three of us here, she left us at the camp gate. Since then, she did not come back." Hellen continues.
Eight months after fresh violence erupted in South Sudan in 2015, a vicious famine produced by the combination of fighting and droughts drove one of the world fastest growing refugee crisis. Uganda currently hosted over 800,000 South Sudanese refugees. Among them, are over 600,000 new arrivals in Uganda since July 2016. 86% are women and children. Uganda has one of the most progressive and exemplary refugee policies in the world.
But even the most welcoming policies have its limits and the unprecedented mass influx is increasingly putting enormous strengths on natural resources, public services and local infrastructures. Financed by the EU Trust Fund for Africa and its partners, the Support Programme for Refugee Settlement in Northern Uganda aims to sustainably improve food security, nutrition and livelihoods of refugee population and host communities.
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Details
- Publication date
- 13 March 2018
- Region and Country
- Uganda
- Thematic
- Greater economic and employment opportunities
- Partner
- Danish Refugee Council
- Austrian Development Agency
- ENABEL - Belgian Development Agency