The Kisoro district LCV Chairman, Abel Bizimana has blamed the International/regional Humanitarian agencies for failing to settle unending conflicts in some African countries like the Democratic republic of Congo.
“Most of the international agencies have passerby attitude, when it comes to dealing with militarized insurgences on the African Continent, especially in the Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) they spend most time posturing instead of finding African solutions to African problems,”said Bizimana.
Bizimana says that Africa has got very many organizations like IGAD, COMESA, East African Community, African Union, SADC among others but their input has not yet been realized. He notes that several organizations are masquerading and pretending in the name of Africa and the United Nations yet they actually fuel insurgencies in different countries.
He said this on Tuesday while addressing a delegation of IGAD representatives at the Kisoro district Council hall in Kisoro Municipality who were assessing the refugee situation in the area.
Bizimana commended President Yoweri Museveni for creating a country of Pan-African ism, a reason that Ugandans warmly welcome refugees on their land. He noted that Humanitarian organizations should first tackle ethnocentric tendencies among and neo-colonialism thinking among Africans.
Bizimana further threatened to lead his voters among the host communities into a revolt in the coming weeks, if IGAD and other humanitarian agencies operating in the area do not devise means of moving all asylum seekers into the camp and out of the communities as “We are about to have a planting season and may need the gardens for food as It’s menacing to see IDP-like picture in Kisoro”.
“With all these regional blocs and Organizations in Africa, we have failed to stop a small rebel group like M23. We are masqueraders and pretenders but this needs to stop if we are to realize the kind of Africa we desire”. said Bizimana.
He says that one of the reasons why asylum seekers stay near the border is that they are not allowed to enjoy sexual rights in the camp!
Musa Ali, the IGAD Delegation head, who also doubles as the Commissioner for Refugees says the regional bloc is going to improve its management of refugee and humanitarian affairs on the African Continent. He also pledged to initiate IGAD financial contributions to member countries.
Daniel Kisamo, the Nyakabande camp commandant representing the OPM said that the camp has relocated over 9,000 individuals out of a population of 36,420 received cumulatively since 28th march. He added that 15307 individuals are still in Nyakabande waiting for relocation.
Camp sources reveal that, a cumulative total number of Congolese asylum seekers who fled their country into Uganda via the Bunagana border, Kisoro district, since the 28th of March, 2022, stands at 36,420 individuals of 18,643 households.
A total of 9,290 Congolese at the transit camp in Nyakabande voluntarily agreed to be relocated further in-land into settlement camps of Nakivale and Kyaka.
However majority of the Congolese in Kisoro remain adamant to leave host communities bordering with Eastern DRC, hoping and dreaming, that one day, they too might return home.
It is nearly four months now since the Asylum seekers fled into Uganda.
Despite Government efforts to have them move to a designated area some 12kms away from the border, many have insisted on hanging around people’s homes and places of business in Bunagana town council, Muramba, Nyarubuye, Rukundo town council and Nyarusiza Sub Counties, literally scavenging for food, shelter and odd jobs to do.
This prolonged, unsought situation in Kisoro host communities has left a bitter taste among locals who have expressed being fatigued by the insatiable needs of their brothers and sisters from across the border.
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