SUDAN-UGANDA: Some 2,000 Sudanese enter Uganda after fleeing hunger

GULU, 29 Oct 2004 (IRIN) - An estimated 2,000 people, mainly women and children, have entered Uganda during the past three months after fleeing hunger in southern Sudan, local officials in northern Uganda said on Friday.

"We estimate that up to 2,000 of them have crossed over to Moyo district," Akumu Mavenjina, the Resident District Commissioner in charge of Moyo told IRIN by telephone from Moyo town.

"Some started moving over following reports a few months ago suggesting that the [rebel] Lord's Resistance Army [LRA] was targeting them in villages and killing dozens of them, but of late there has been increased [people] and many are complaining of hunger."

She said that many of the refugees who arrived recently reported leaving their homes because of drought-related food shortages.

"There has been an increased number of arrivals in the past days and our staff are up there are registering them to see how they could be taken to refugee settlements in the region," said Dennis Duncan, spokesman for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Kampala.

An estimated 185,000 refugees who fled civil war in southern Sudan live in refugee settlements in northern, northwestern and western Uganda.

[ENDS]