Newly arrived refugees resort to own farming to fight hunger in camps

South Sudan refugees who have arrived in Uganda recently have appealed for farm inputs to enable them supplement what the World Food Program gives them

The group being sheltered at recently opened refugee settlement at Zone II in Swinga, in Yumbe district, have started farming in the vast land in order to avert hunger in the camps.

They have appealed to aid agencies to provide them with farming skills, short term seedlings and tools.

They say that the area in which they are settled in at Swinga in Romogi Sub County is fertile land and if well utilized can enable them supplement what World Food Organization gives them.

The camp was opened two months ago after Bidi-Bidi, the first camp in the district became congested. It receives 2,300 refugees daily from South Sudan and currently it is hosting about 200,000 refugees.

Moses Lubang, one of the elders in the settlement emphasized that they need to engage in agriculture because they are farmers.

Each family in a refugee settlement at Swinga is given a plot of 30sq metres for cultivation but the refugees have also expressed worry about the possibility of their crops drying up with the fast approaching dry season.

Written by David Kugonza