© European Union, 2024 (photographer: Peter Biro)
UGANDA – At least 16 Sudanese refugees were injured—some critically—after a violent attack on their camp in western Uganda late Thursday. According to the leadership office of the Sudanese refugee community, a mob of over 100 armed individuals stormed the Kiryandongo settlement, targeting the “Cluster L East” section from three directions.
The assailants used machetes and sharp tools in the assault, which witnesses described as brutal and indiscriminate. Among the injured were both men and women, with several in critical condition.
Despite intervention from local police and security committees, none of the attackers were apprehended. Authorities managed only to transport a few of the wounded to Bweyale’s Panyadoli hospital, which serves the refugee population. The lack of ambulance services left local residents to transport the remaining victims to nearby health centers, including for individuals in life–threatening condition.
In a statement issued after the attack, the refugee community leadership dismissed robbery as a motive, suggesting instead that the violence was deliberate and specifically aimed at Sudanese refugees. The condemned the continued silence of the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) in the face of what they described as repeated, targeted assaults on their community.
Some of the seriously wounded were transferred to hospitals in the towns of Gulu and Kiryandongo, while others remained under treatment in Panyadoli Hospital, which suffers from a shortage of medical personnel and basic supplies, the statement added.
The refugee leadership called on Ugandan government authorities and humanitarian organizations to take urgent action to hold the perpetrators accountable and prevent further attacks. The also appealed to Sudanese refugees in nearby settlement—Gulu, Kiryandongo, and Bidi Bidi—to show solidarity with the victims.
The incident follows a warning in May from the Sudanese Doctors Network, which reported that over 50,000 Sudanese refugees in the Kiryandongo camp were living in deteriorating humanitarian conditions. The crisis was attributed to the suspension of aid from the UNHCR and the World Food Programme (WFP) due to funding shortages.
The network painted a grim picture of the living conditions, highlighting a lack of basic healthcare, severe medication shortages, and increasing vulnerability among children, pregnant women, and the elderly.
Uganda currently hosts an estimated 100,000 Sudanese refugees, many of whom fled their country after war broke out in April 2023 between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF). The overall refugee population in Uganda has now surpassed 1.9 million, making it one of the largest refugee-hosting countries in the world.
