Kiryandongo Refugee Settlement Explained

Kiryandongo Refugee Settlement
Pushpin Map:Uganda
Coordinates:1.957°N 32.181°W
Subdivision Type:Country
Subdivision Name: Uganda
Unit Pref:Metric
Population Density Km2:auto

Kiryandongo Refugee Settlement is a refugee camp in Bweyale in Kiryandongo district Uganda.

It is a home for refugees from Burundi, DR Congo, Rwanda, Kenya and South Sudan.[1]

Population

As of October 2021, the camp, Kiryandongo Refugee Settlement, hosted over 73780 refugees. The settlement is dominated by refugees from South Sudan.[2]

History

The Kiryandongo area was first used for resettling refugees in 1954 [3] when the British colonial administration asked the Bunyoro Native Government to give the Colonial Government of the Governor to move Kenyan refugees fleeing the Mau Mau Uprising to Kigumba in what was then Masindi District. The Bunyoro Native Government gave land to the Governor for the period of 49 years. During the Idi Amin administration, the land was part of a large-scale government ranching scheme, of which reminders remain today in the names of the subdivisions of the camp. This left the land sparsely populated.[4]

In 1990 the Ugandan government gazetted the virtually uninhabited land around Kiryandongo for refugee resettlement. Ethnic Acholi people fleeing the Sudan People's Liberation Army from Parjok in South Sudan were settled in Kiryandongo after temporarily being held in Kitgum and Masindi. During the 1990s the Sudanese refugees were joined by Ugandan Acholi IDPs from the LRA-affected areas of Gulu and Kitgum.[4]

Kiryandongo also served as an interim stop for displaced people transiting to other camps, including 22,000 who moved from the Achol-Pii Refugee Settlement to Kyangwali in 2002.[5]

Social services

The Youth Peacemaker Network provides youth programs to more than 65,000 refugees at Kiryandongo. It is a collaboration with the Western Union Foundation.[6]

Health care and sanitation

As part of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Kiryandongo provides basic necessities to over 100,000 refugees.[7]

Some of the health centers in the settlement were taken by RMF which included, Panyadi Health Centre III, Panyadi Hills Health Centre II, and Reception Centre Clinic.[8]

Notes and References

  1. News: Kibego. John. Uganda: Kenyan Refugees Demand to Go Home. 6 August 2014. The Observer. 5 December 2014.
  2. Web site: Uganda Refugee Response Monitoring Settlement Fact Sheet: Kiryandongo (January 2018) - Uganda. ReliefWeb. en. 2020-02-22.
  3. Web site: The History of the Kiryandongo Refugee Camp • With Open Eyes. Kintz. Carrie. 2019-01-08. With Open Eyes. en-US. 2020-02-22.
  4. Kaiser. Tania. UNHCR's withdrawal from Kiryandongo: anatomy of a handover. New Issues in Refugee Research. October 2000. 32. 12 June 2016. UNHCR. Geneva. 1020-7473.
  5. Web site: Mutuli. Milicent. Displaced refugees in Uganda start move to permanent site. UNHCR. 12 June 2016. 9 September 2002.
  6. Web site: Kiryandongo Refugee Settlement. 2020-09-15. WPDI. en-US.
  7. Web site: 2013-07-10. Kiryandongo Refugee Settlement Project. 2020-09-15. Real Medicine Foundation. en-US.
  8. Web site: 2013-07-10 . Kiryandongo Refugee Settlement Project . 2023-05-01 . Real Medicine Foundation . en-US.