South Sudan refugees live in fear after deadly attack

Refugees at Tika zone in Rhino Camp refugee settlement during a security meeting in February. PHOTO/TOBBIAS JOLLY OWINY

 

By Tobbias Jolly Owiny By Scovin Iceta

 

South Sudan refugees living in Rhino Camp settlement, Rigbwo Sub-county, in Madi Okollo District, are living in fear following a recent attack that claimed 10 of their colleagues.

On September 11, a dispute between the host community and refugees ended in a violent attack on the settlement located in Tika Village, Kwili Parish.

Ten refugees were killed and 19 seriously injured, while 15 of their huts were burnt and another 26 looted and vandalised.

At a reconciliation meeting convened by West Nile regional police commander Richard Okullu on September 21, the refugees expressed fear that the host community could attack them again.

Leaders of the refugees wrote to the district authorities, detailing their grievances and demanded to know what measures the government had instituted to protect them and prevent such acts from reoccurring in future.

 

‘Attacks everywhere’

“Wherever we move out there, attacks are everywhere and we don’t know at what minute they are striking us next. We have lost a lot of our people, while others are injured and the government should ensure that justice is served,” Mr Felix Ade, the leader of Tika 2 Block in the refugee camp, said in an interview at the weekend.

“During the meeting, we also requested security leaders that the number of officers deployed to the settlements be increased in order to avoid possible recurrence of the attack,” Mr Ade added.

“People are spreading a lot of rumours against us and we feel threatened even when we have been living like brothers and sisters before that incident. Others say we have grabbed their land and taken away all their privileges,” he revealed.

However, Mr Swadik Dratele, the chairperson of Balala Village in O’dobu Parish, Rigbo Sub-county, who represented the host community at the meeting, dismissed claims of threats against the refugees.

“Those threatening the refugees are simply opportunists who want to benefit from such threats but the important issue we have at hand is that elders and landlords requested OPM [Office of the Prime Minister] and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to give them some little reward for offering land on which the refugees are hosted,” he said.

Mr Dratele said the landlords were demanding reward in the form of food relief and houses since they surrendered huge chunks of land for settling the refugees.

Last week, the UNHCR condemned the killings and called upon the government to take urgent action against the perpetrators.

“The disproportionate violent reaction by the host community to a communal dispute signals a threat to the delicate balance of coexistence in the rural villages where refugees live alongside their Ugandan hosts,” Mr Joel Boutroue, the UNHCR representative to Uganda, said.

However, Ms Alice Akello, the Madi Okollo Resident District Commissioner, told Daily Monitor that calm was being restored following heavy deployment and sensitisation of both the refugees and the host community.

“Although they (refugees) were requesting to be relocated to another place for fear of repeated attacks, we are sure there will be no problem because we have beefed up security in that area, besides the sensitisation and dialogue,” Ms Akello added.

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