SOUTH SUDAN: Yei Catholic Bishop Calls on Uganda Government to Arrest South Sudanese Keeping Guns in Refugee Camps
Bishop of Yei, Rt. Rev. Alex Lodiong
Ginaba Lino
Bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Yei in South Sudan Rt. Rev. Alex Lodiong has, on 23rd August 2022, called on the government Uganda to arrest and imprison any South Sudanese politician who goes to camps with guns.
“The international community represented by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees should take note of politicians who go to the camps to confuse the refugees,” Lodiong added.
He revealed that some South Sudanese politicians go to the refugees’ settlements to look for opposition leaders who surrendered and went to camps as refugees.
“I would like to bring to the attention of the office of the Prime Minister (OMP) mandated by the Government of Uganda to take care of our refugees here, and for the International Community represented by UNCHR. If you get any politician through the Intelligence of the Police and the Army, and you get any person who is carrying guns in this Camps here, arrest them and put them in prison. We don’t like people who are carrying guns coming in to confuse our people here who have taken refuge.”
Bishop Lodiong regretted some politicians who follow the opposition leaders and kill them in foreign countries.
He advised the government of Uganda not collaborate with the South Sudan government by detaining the opposition leaders seeking refuge in their country.
“Others were even followed up to the cities, they got arrested there and they were killed. Let us hope that there was no cooperation by the government of Uganda to let these people be arrested like that; let us hope not, because these people are coming here to take refuge. They are not coming here as politicians. Anybody wanting to practice politics or to be a military man and woman should go to the place where there is war not in the refugees’ camp,” Lodiong explained.
Bishop Alex told the leadership of Uganda and UNCHR that the country is not yet secure for the refugees to return unless the individual is willing to return on voluntary basis.
“As per now I’m speaking to you because I know what is going on. I’m quite sure, at the level of politics, the politicians in South Sudan may talk to the politicians here in Uganda and begin saying that there is peace, let our people go back. I’m quite sure that’s going on. But as a community leader, a Church leader, I want to tell the government of Uganda through you representing the office of Prime minister and the UNCHR that these people. if they want to go free or voluntarily it’s up to them. We know there is an international law that guides refugees: once their land is not secure, they have not to be forced to go back.”
The call came during the Bishop’s pastoral visit to Palorinya Refugee Settlement in Arua.
Palorinya refugee settlement was established in December 2016 and is located in Moyo district in the West Nile region of Uganda.
The settlement currently hosts approximately 166,000 South Sudanese refugees, with a total surface area of 37.58 square kilometers and is currently closed to new arrivals.
