The Minister of Relief, Disaster Preparedness and Refugees Eng. Hilary Onek has revealed that Uganda is receiving a large influx of refugees mainly from the Democratic Republic of Congo.
“We are receiving approximately 3450 refugees daily at our reception centers through Kisoro, Ntoroko, Hoima and Zombo districts,” Onek said, adding: “What this means is that the task of providing hope and support to refugees and host communities remains a huge challenge to the country.”
The Minister made the marks on Thursday while presenting a statement to Parliament on the allegations of inflated refugee numbers, fraudulent distribution of food, bribery, interference with elections of refugee leaders and trafficking of refugee girls.
The Minister revealed that for the past three years, the Refugee Response in the Country has exponentially grown involving many players which has stretched the existing supervision and co-ordination capacity of the Government. For instance, the number of refugees has increased from 433,595 since February 2015 to over 1.4 million as of February 2018.
He revealed that four officers at the Office of the Prime Minister in connection with the refugee mess have since been interdicted and are out of office and investigations are ongoing.
He added that during the Solidarity Summit on Refugees held in June 2017, 523 million dollars was pledged and about 350 million dollars has so far been realized and efforts are ongoing to realize more and the remaining pledges.
