Uganda Red Cross Society recently deployed the first Red Cross unmanned aerial vehicle – a drone – in Africa to monitor the situation at a vast refugee camp on the border with South Sudan. The drone footage from northern Uganda revealed that a swathe of countryside is becoming home for the hundreds of people crossing the border each day.

On 8 September, the day the drone took to the air, 4,373 new refugees crossed into Uganda, according to the most recent update from the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

The Bidi- bidi reception Centre in Yumbe district, where many refugees are being initially registered, is 300 kilometres north of Kampala, but is within walking distance of the border with South Sudan, where fighting has erupted. Red Cross volunteers and staff are providing aid and care to the refugees passing through the reception centre.

According to the Red Cross, 57,900 people have passed through the Bidibidi centre – just over a month after it opened. The reception centre is expected to be over its capacity of 100,000 people within the next month.

Nearly 130,000 South Sudanese refugees have arrived since 1 July, bringing the total number in Uganda to nearly 360,000 (Source: UNHCR).

‘A decent life’

On 29 August the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) launched an emergency appeal for 700,000 US dollars to support the Uganda Red Cross Society’s efforts to assist 40,000 refugees for six months with safe water, sanitation, hygiene promotion, emergency shelter, and health care.

Regional leaders in the Greater Horn of Africa has also raised concern over unending wars that often leads to emergency situations that majorly  affects women and children.

While addressing leaders at a recent world leaders’ summit on Refugees in New York during the ongoing United Nations General Assembly, President Museveni called on world leaders to respect the rights of refugees in their countries.

According to reports, Uganda currently has a refugee population of 690,000 coming from the countries such as Burundi, DR Congo, South Sudan, Somalia, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya and Rwanda among others. The president predicts the numbers to increase further to 810,000 by the end of this year.

Museveni said that it is wrong to treat African refugees as if they are seeking to consume resources of the indigenous people.

“I tell Ugandans that these (refugees) are our unfortunate brothers and sisters having a misfortune, for the moment, being misgoverned or being unprotected against demonic rebels,” he said.

The Red Cross and other Humanitarian agencies have often raised concern over escalating violence especially in Burundi and South Sudan which they say often causes suffering to the local populations.

“The vast majority of people crossing into Uganda from South Sudan are women and children or people with special needs, such as the elderly and those with complex health issues,” said Andreas Sandin, IFRC operations coordinator for East Africa. “Having travelled more than 400 kilometres from Juba, they arrive exhausted, hungry, and in need of shelter. With more families arriving daily, we need to ramp up our activities quickly.”

Gracious Kyagaba, Water and Sanitation Coordinator at the Uganda Red Cross Society, said: “The appeal launched by the IFRC will support us to address issues related to inadequate supply of water and limited access to health facilities, as well as curb outbreaks of diarrhoeal diseases.

“We will also support refugees to set up shelters so that they are able to live as decently as possible.”

Red Cross volunteers are assisting with the registration of new arrivals, who come in on UNHCR buses and then disperse into the surrounding countryside.

Emergency operation

Volunteers are also operating a treatment plant to produce safe drinking-water, and working to raise awareness of hygiene and sanitation – crucial in maintaining good health for the refugees.

The drone used by the society to document its work in Bidibidi was supplied by the Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre as part of its forecast-based financing programme for large-scale climate-related disasters in Africa supported by the government of Germany and the German Red Cross.

Following its successful first flight, the device may now be deployed from its base in Kampala elsewhere in Africa on forecast-based financing assignments and climate-related emergencies.

The first forecast-based financing response to a disaster was triggered in Uganda last November when Red Cross volunteers distributed 5,000 relief items to flood insecure communities in Kapelebyong after forecasts of rising water-levels reached a predetermined risk threshold.

Museveni however, wants world leaders to stop supporting armed conflicts especially on the African continent which result in an influx of refugees arguing that sponsoring such groups by external forces prevents peace building.

“If a conflict is really justified, in order to fight for justice with war being the only means of resistance and national salvation, the people can successfully wage a people’s struggle without external sponsorship,” said Museveni. He added that conflict situations are being propelled by puppets looking for external sponsors and by chauvinists looking for puppets.

He cited what he called sectarian persecution occasioned by the “ideologically bankrupt” groups who rely on undisciplined and criminal armies or militias” as one of the main causes of the refugee problem in Africa.

The president called on refugee hosting countries to ensure that refugees are given the necessary assistance to avoid degrading the environment. He also called on humanitarian organizations to empower refugees through educating the children, imparting skills in order for them to be more advantaged when they return to their countries.