Refugees Living in Urban City of Arua Complains of the long distances to the camps
Many of these women said that the reason they transferred to the urban towns of Arua and Koboko is to pursue quality education and better health services for this sons and daughters.
South Sudanese women living in the urban towns of Arua city and Koboko district have raised concern over the long distances they have to cover which are usually very costly to the refugees’ settlement camps to collect their food ratio during the distribution process which only takes place at the settlement camps.
Many of these women said that the reason they transferred to the urban towns of Arua and Koboko is to pursue quality education and better health services for this sons and daughters. They therefore implored the agencies concerned to consider their plight and put in place plans that would lessen their struggles, for instance, having a distribution centre also located at Arua town or Koboko.
32-years-old Joyce Hayati, a mother of 8 children speaking on behalf of the refugee women living in the urban town said that the suffering of the refugee women in the urban towns somehow doubled. She explained for instance that she gets her food ratio from Tika refugees’ settlement in Madi Okollo; the distance is too far and transport quite expensive. She explained that during the lockdown due to corona virus pandemic, she did not travel to the camp to collect her food ration because there was no transport facilitations and movements were restricted.
Sometimes we are forced to sell part of our food ratio to cater for transport costs from the settlement to the town where we live,’’ she explained adding that the cost of transport from the camp where she collects her food ratio to the town where she lives is 100,000 Ugandan shillings approximately 28 US dollars.
She explained that the low standards of education at the refugees settlement has forced many parents who want to see their children acquire better education to relocate to urban towns, a move that is very challenging.
She therefore urges the Office of Prime Minister in Uganda, the World Food Program and UNHCR to at least transfer food for the urban refugees to Arua to help them from spending so much to go to the camps.
Commenting on the same issue, Solomon Osakan the Refugees Desk Officer in the officer of the Prime Minister, Department of refugees in West Nile said that there is nothing like urban refugees living in Arua and Koboko town. He said that the urban refugees are found in Kampala and those that have chosen to relocate from the camps to towns are staying at their own cost. As such, nothing can be done and those who need food ratio must go to the settlement. The agencies cannot come to them in towns.
By Gaaniko Samson Jerry Rurugene Correspondents
