As fighting resumed in Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo a steady stream of refugees continues to cross the border in neighbouring Uganda in search of shelter. Some 10,000 people entered the country during the last 48 hours through the Ishasha crossing, Kanugu district, with refugee numbers soaring at an estimated 27,000.
People flee fighting opposing Laurent Nkunda's rebels and FDLR militias in the North Kivu congolese province. They enter Uganda exhausted after days of walking through the bush carrying bundles of belongings and the little food they managed to spare in the rush of leaving their villages.
An experienced disaster management delegate from the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) is in Uganda to support the Uganda Red Cross Society in conducting a rapid assessment exercise ahead of the launch of an emergency appeal to scale up assistance to the refugee population.
Health risks
While evaluating the situation the IFRC has a water and sanitation emergency response unit (ERU) on stand by ready for deployment. The presence in DR Congo of an NGO-managed health clinic treating war wounded and cholera patients is indicative of the high risk of cholera crossing the border into Uganda with the refugees, should the fighting approach this area.
While the Uganda Red Cross has a strong and well trained group of volunteers in the region - with some experience in responding to diarrhoea and cholera emergencies - the immediate concern is to supply them with stocks of water and sanitation items and cholera kits.
In addition, should the situation demand it, ten regional disaster response team members present in Nairobi for a training session stand ready for direct deployment to Uganda.
Ensuring refugee safety
Meanwhile, Uganda Red Cross, who is in charge of refugees registration says the Government and UNHCR are gradually relocating people sheltered at the Ishasha Reception Centre in the Kanungu district to ensure better safety for refugees.
According to Cadet Benjamin, a Uganda Red Cross field coordinator for Rukungiri area “the situation has become unpredictable. We are so near the border that anything can happen. “
Cadet said the Red Cross, UNHCR and local authorities are working together to set up the new transit centre some seven kilometers inland.
During the last week 3,300 refugees that entered through Ishasha in Kanungu were transferred to Nakivale resettlement camp in Isingiro district, some 350km away from the border. An additional 3,000 refugees that came via Kisoro have also been moved to safety to Nakivale.
Urgent needs
The Red Cross mans the Nyakabande Transit Camp in Kisoro providing emergency relief items to the refugees. Kisoro Field Coordinator, Edson Baherezibwa, said ten more unaccompanied minors have been identified and transferred to Nakivale as attempts are made by partner national organizations to identify their relatives and reunite children with their families.
Some sixty Uganda Red Cross volunteers participating in the operation In Kisoro and Kanungu, are tasked with registering and sensitising refugees about the benefits of moving into the inland camp. They conduct hygiene promotion and sanitation activities.
The Red Cross team reports that although water is made available by humanitarian actors on the ground and the WFP provided food at the Ishasha border crossing, “health centres have run of drugs and there is an urgent need to increase the provision of clean water supplies as well as latrines at the border transit centre in Kanugu as well as in the inland camps.”