Ahead of the ‘Uganda Solidarity Summit on Refugees’ CARE International warns of the alarming health and safety risks for refugee women and girls fleeing the continuous fighting and famine in South Sudan. An average of 2,000 refugees are arriving daily into northwestern Uganda.
“The horror which South Sudanese women and girls have experienced in South Sudan due to the conflict and on their journey to Uganda are impossible to put into words. The majority arrive incredibly traumatized. Most walked for days or weeks through the bush without much food and water,” Delphine Pinault, CARE’s Country Director in Uganda.
Since the spike in violence in South Sudan in July 2016, there has been a major influx of over 600,000 South Sudanese refugees in northwestern Uganda making it the lead refugee hosting country in Africa. There is now a total of 1.2 million refugees in Uganda with 900,000 from South Sudan. Women and children make up 86% of the refugee population. Due to the impact of the conflict on communities and households, women often take on the arduous displacement journey to seek refuge in Uganda without male relatives, carrying and caring for many children on the way.
“Many women and girls are burdened not only with the loss of their homes and loved ones but also with the experience of rape, sexual assault and physical attacks they have either personally experienced or witnessed in South Sudan. They also often cite fear of rape as a primary reason for fleeing the country”, Delphine Pinault.
As the humanitarian refugee response in Uganda is chronically under-funded, women and girls arriving in Uganda don’t receive sufficient food, water, shelter and other basic supplies. “The significant lack of access to basic services is making refugee women and girls more vulnerable and reliant on negative coping strategies. Many don’t see any other way than to trade sex for food or engage in exploitative forms of labor. This perpetuates sexual violence, the risk of HIV or early marriages and unwanted pregnancies, creating even greater needs among refugee women and girls. It’s a vicious cycle that needs to be broken,” Pinault urges.
Refugees not only need food, clean water, shelter and emergency healthcare but also urgent psychosocial care to address the trauma that they have experienced in South Sudan and during their journey to Uganda. Without support, many withdraw into depression and alcohol consumption, which also leads to increased risk of violence in the settlements.
Source: reliefweb. Read full article here.
19 June, 2017