Uganda Has 1.4 Million IDPs - Report
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New Vision (Kampala)
June 3, 2004
Posted to the web June 3, 2004
Kezio Musoke
Kampala
UGANDA has registered the world's fourth highest number of Internally Displaced
Persons (IDPs).
According to the 2004 World Refugee Survey released this week by the United States
Committee for Refugees (USCR), Uganda has about 1.4 million IDPs.
The report said Sudan, with about 4.8 million IDPs, accounts for about 20 percent of
all IDPs worldwide.
It is followed by the DR of Congo (DRC), with about 3.2 million IDPs, Colombia, with
nearly 3 million and then Uganda.
Uganda registered the third largest number of both IDPs and refugees in Africa, third
to DRC, while Sudan leads.
The number is attributed to continued internal displacement in conflict areas in the
north and western parts of the country especially in Kitgum, Kabarole, Gulu, Kasese
and Bundibugyo.
The IDPs are people forced to flee their homes but who still live in their country of
origin.
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East Africa
Refugees and Displacement
Uganda
"When refugees in Africa were added to IDPs, the report found that a net total of 13.9
million Africans have been uprooted in the past five years," the report says.
"Africa, which is already struggling with HIV/AIDS and the lowest per capita income
levels of any other region, accounted for over 13.1 million IDPs, well over half of
the world's total IDP population," the report says.
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