Uganda struggles to feed more than 1.7 million refugees as international support dwindles | Canada News Media
Connect with us

News

Uganda struggles to feed more than 1.7 million refugees as international support dwindles

Published

 on

 

RWAMWANJA, Uganda (AP) — For months, Agnes Bulaba, a Congolese refugee in Uganda, has had to get by without the food rations she once depended on. Her children scavenge among local communities for whatever they can find to eat.

“As a woman who’s not married, life is hard,” Bulaba told The Associated Press. Some locals “keep throwing stones at us, but we just want to feed our kids and buy them some clothes,” said the mother of six, who often works as a prostitute to fend for her family.

Uganda is home to more than 1.7 million refugees, the largest refugee-hosting country in Africa, according to the United Nations refugee agency. Despite being renowned for welcoming those fleeing neighboring violence, Ugandan officials and humanitarians say dwindling international support coupled with high numbers of refugees have put much pressure on host communities.

Approximately 10,000 new arrivals enter Uganda each month, according to U.N. figures. Some have recently fled the war in Sudan, but most are from neighboring South Sudan and Congo.

Bulaba is among tens of thousands in Rwamwanja, a refugee settlement in southwestern Uganda. As in other settlements across the east African country, refugees there are given small plots of land to cultivate as they are slowly weaned off total dependence on humanitarian food rations.

Since 2021, as funding consistently declined, the U.N.’s World Food Program has prioritized the most vulnerable groups for food assistance, in food items or cash, which can be as little as $3. After spending three months in Uganda, refugees are eligible to get 60% rations, and the number falls by half after six months. Only new arrivals get 100% food assistance, leaving the vast majority of some 99,000 refugees in Bulaba’s settlement vulnerable to hunger and other impoverishment.

In 2017, the Ugandan government and the U.N. held a summit in Kampala, the capital, and appealed for $8 billion to deal with the sharp influx of refugees from South Sudan at the time. Only $350 million was pledged.

Filippo Grandi, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, visited Uganda last week in a trip partly aimed to underscore the funding shortage.

The international community “should not take Uganda’s generosity and the global public good it provides for granted,” Grandi said in a statement at the end of his visit. “Services here are overstretched. Natural resources are limited, and financial support is not keeping pace with the needs.”

He also said international support “is urgently needed to sustain Uganda’s commitment to refugees,” urging donors and humanitarian partners to “come together with the government to address the needs of refugees and the generous communities hosting them.”

Refugees in Uganda have access to the same hospitals as locals, and their children can attend school. While this helps integrate them into the Ugandan community, sometimes the competition for limited resources sparks tension. However, violence is rarely reported.

Hillary Onek, the Ugandan government minister in charge of refugees, said during Grandi’s visit that local officials need support to help refugees become more self-reliant. Though he said the country was “overloaded” with refugees, he cited several training options to help refugees become self-sufficient, including carpentry, bricklaying and metal welding.

“We are trying to be innovative,” he said. “Given the fact that funding for refugee programs dwindled over the years, there is not enough money to meet their demands, not even giving them enough food to eat.”

Onek said the alternative is “to survive on your own, using your skills, using whatever capacity you have.”

But Bulaba, the Congolese refugee who has been in Uganda since 2014 after fleeing violence in her home country with her two children, said she can’t find a job. She has since had four other children who often go barefoot and without appropriate clothing. She misses the cash-for-food stipend she used to get.

“For us to eat, we look for work, but there’s no work,” she said.

___

Associated Press writer Rodney Muhumuza in Kampala, Uganda, contributed to this report.

___

The Associated Press receives financial support for global health and development coverage in Africa from the Gates Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

Source link

Continue Reading

News

Waterloo Regional Police make arrest after walnuts stolen twice from same business

Published

 on

Police say a man has been charged with possession of stolen property after thousands of dollars’ worth of walnuts were taken from a business in Cambridge, Ont., recovered by police and then stolen again weeks later.

Waterloo Regional Police say a transport truck and trailer containing walnuts were stolen on Nov. 5, 2023 from the yard of a business in the area of Eagle Street North and Hespeler Road.

They say Halton Regional Police found the trailer and walnuts in Milton, Ont., on Dec. 13 and returned the stolen goods to the business.

Waterloo police say the same trailer was targeted again less than three weeks later, when someone made off with $26,000 worth of walnuts.

Investigators say a portion of that load, valued at $11,000, was recovered in February with help from police in Hamilton.

A 68-year-old man from Kitchener, Ont., was charged with possession of stolen property over $5,000 in the case.

Waterloo police are also trying to crack another nut-theft case after a transport truck and trailer loaded with $70,000 worth of pistachios were taken from a business in Wilmot Township in January.

But they don’t have information to suggest that theft is related to the stolen walnuts.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 31, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.



Source link

Continue Reading

News

Ontario lacks a health-care plan for alcohol harms as sales expand: health coalition

Published

 on

TORONTO – Premier Doug Ford’s government has no strategy to mitigate problems that could result from the province’s newly liberalized alcohol sales rules, a health coalition said Thursday, warning that more death, cancer diagnoses and emergency department strains are on the horizon.

The coalition, which includes the Canadian Mental Health Association, the Canadian Public Health Association, the Canadian Cancer Society and the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, said the province has not responded to its request to work together to come up with a plan addressing the possible harms.

“Somebody should be paying attention to what we firmly believe is on the horizon,” said Camille Quenneville, CEO of the Ontario branch of the Canadian Mental Health Association.

“And there doesn’t appear to be any thought or interest in having a conversation or sitting down and figuring out how we might be able to deal with this.”

Thursday marks the province’s final stage of opening up the alcohol sales market as grocery stores that are not already selling booze can stock their shelves with beer, wine and coolers.

The province said it is spending $10 million over five years to support social responsibility and public-health efforts, although it has not provided details on what that entails.

The Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario said it has issued new licences to just over 400 grocery stores across the province in addition to the 450 that are already licensed. It said it has issued licences to 4,707 convenience stores, which have been able to sell booze since early September.

“In a province where we’re already seeing nearly 700 emergency departments visits due to alcohol every day, and we have a health system that is under extreme strain, it just doesn’t seem logical that the government is pursuing this massive expansion without the implementation of any kind of alcohol strategy for the province to mitigate some of the harms that we know are going to be associated with this expansion,” said Ian Culbert, executive director of the Canadian Public Health Association.

The coalition says research out of British Columbia, which partially privatized alcohol sales some two decades ago, offers a guide post for what’s coming.

They point to a study that shows for every 10 per cent increase in privately owned stores selling alcohol, there was a 1.5 per cent increase in consumption.

With a 300 per cent increase in Ontario locations selling alcohol, the province could see a 45 per cent increase in booze consumption, the coalition says.

The coalition projects the number of deaths caused by alcohol could jump from 6,200 to 9,100 per year in Ontario if trends researched in B.C. hold true.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 31, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.



Source link

Continue Reading

News

S&P/TSX composite down nearly 400 points, U.S. stock markets also tumble

Published

 on

TORONTO – Canada’s main stock index was down nearly 400 points in late-morning trading, with losses led by the technology and base metal sectors, while U.S. stock markets also fell.

The S&P/TSX composite index was down 375.74 points at 24,132.05.

In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was down 355.64 points at 41,785.90. The S&P 500 index was down 82.30 points at 5,731.37, while the Nasdaq composite was down 412.59 points at 18,195.34.

The Canadian dollar traded for 71.88 cents US compared with 71.86 cents US on Wednesday.

The December crude oil contract was up 79 cents at US$69.40 per barrel and the December natural gas contract was down 11 cents at US$2.73 per mmBTU.

The December gold contract was down US$54.80 at US$2,746.00 an ounce and the December copper contract was down a penny at US$4.34 a pound.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 31, 2024.

Companies in this story: (TSX:GSPTSE, TSX:CADUSD)

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.



Source link

Continue Reading

Trending

Exit mobile version