The Uganda has retrieved 107 dead bodies from Lake Albert, after a boat reported to be ferrying an estimated number of 150 Congolese refugees from Kyangwali refugee’s settlement camp for Kanara Landing site in the far Western Uganda District of Ntoroko, spontaneously returning home to the Democratic Republic of Congo capsized in Lake Albert on Saturday last week.
The Minister of Relief, Disaster and Preparedness Eng. Hillary Onek revealed at a press briefing that the exact number of passengers who were on board is yet to be established, however, stressed that so far the number of bodies recovered include, 44 female, 63 male among them 57 children totaling to 107.
As Timothy Sibasi reports, the Uganda government has blamed a traditional King in DRC Bamukoka Swambili who made various announcements on Radio stations requesting his subjects who fled to Uganda as refugees to return following the return of peace in their areas of origin formerly controlled by ADF rebels and M23 rebels.
On Saturday last week a boat reported to be carrying an estimated number of 150 Congolese refugees from the Lake shores of Lake Albert at Kyangwali refugees camp for Kanara landing site from where they could spontaneously return to the original homes in the Democratic Republic of Congo capsized in Lake Albert.
The boat on that fateful day is reported to have capsized between 10:30am and 11:30am. That Saturday only 19 dead bodies were retrieved. However, since Saturday police divers have been patrolling Lake Albert, but this morning they made a major breakthrough in their operation when they recovered retrieved 107 bodies, in spite of the unclear figure of passengers who were on board.
“However, these are so far the number of bodies recovered, 44 female, 63 male among them 57 children totaling to 107”.
Apparently many of the dead bodies retrieved between Monday and this morning have not been handed over to their relatives for burial.
“All bodies retrieved are being transported from Ntoroko landing site to budibugyo Hospital where postmortem is being done together with identification before handing over to relatives from DRC, who have been co-coordinating the return of the dead since Saturday in Bundibugyo”
Whereas the cause of this fatal accident on Lake Albert was as a result of over loading according to Uganda police, other independent sources attributed the fleeing of Congolese refugees to lack of food in the refugees camp. “Around January 2014, there was a reduction of food rations to 50% and this affected only the old caseload. This was occasioned by the influx of South Sudanese Refugees who need to be fed”.
This situation, however, was returned to normalcy after World Food Programme resumed distribution of 100% food rations effective end of February to all beneficiaries. Currently the projected WFP needs for 2014 to feed the 370,000 refugees in Uganda are put at USD50 Million.
While the Uganda government acknowledges that the food scarcity partly accounted for the fleeing of these refugees who drowned in Lake Albert, on the other hand it has squarely held a traditional King for the Batalinga tribe in DRC liable for the unfortunate death of the innocent Congolese on Lake Albert.
“He made it clear that a number of Non-Governmental Organizations were at Kamango to provide to them the necessary settlement packages many Congolese refugees at Kyangwali on receiving this information have since spontaneously made secretive movements across Lake Albert via Kanara and Ntoroko Landing sites returning home”.
Apparently the DRC has 187,842 refugees in Uganda, South Sudan has 90,000 refugees, Somalia has 40,000 refugees, Rwanda has 16,000 refugees and Kenya has 1300 refugees respectively