The East African country's refugee population has risen sharply recently as people flood in from eastern Congo
By Elias Biryabarema
KAMPALA, Feb 22 (Reuters) - Twenty-six refugees from the Democratic Republic of Congo have died in a camp in Uganda from acute
The East African country's refugee population has risen sharply recently as people flood in from eastern Congo, where resurgent ethnic and inter-communal violence has uprooted hundreds of thousands.
Duniya Aslam Khan,
She said the condition had already killed 26 refugees from Feb. 15 to 19, while 424 cases were being treated.
The
More than 4.4 million people have been displaced in Congo, in part aggravated by a political crisis sparked by President Joseph Kabila's refusal to step down at the end of his mandate in 2016.
UNHCR says that so far this year, more than 42,000 have already arrived, bringing the total number of Congolese refugees in Uganda to a quarter of a million.
Prospects of fresh aid for refugees in Uganda have been dimmed after allegations that officials had likely inflated numbers to steal relief funds. Other charges include bribery, logistics fraud and trafficking of refugee girls.
The country says it has a total refugee population of about 1.4 million, more than a million of whom have fled from South Sudan's four-year civil war.
Investigations by both the Ugandan government, the UN and the European Union are
"Our resources are stretched to the limit," Duniya said, adding they needed new funds to de-congest existing settlements stretched by the Congolese influx.
(Reporting by Elias Biryabarema; Editing by George Obulutsa and Hugh Lawson)
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