Kisoro District Thursday hosted a South Sudanese delegation at Nyakabande Transit Centre to benchmark on refugee management.
The seven-member delegation, led by John Dominic Dabi, the Deputy Commissioner for Refugee Affairs in South Sudan, visited to learn from Uganda’s experience in handling refugee emergencies and managing humanitarian efforts.
This coincides the rising number of asylum seekers from Eastern DRC entering Kisoro district, with an average of 600 of them entering through Bunagana border.
South Sudan also continues to face an influx of refugees from Sudan, due to the ongoing civil war since 2023.
Currently, South Sudan hosts over 56,000 refugees from countries such as the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Eritrea, Sudan, and Ethiopia.
Uganda is internationally recognised for its open-door policy to asylum seekers. The team was particularly interested in Uganda’s systems for documentation, screening, organisation, and provision of basic services like food and shelter in its transit centres.
Dominic Dabi noted that despite funding challenges—partly due to stricter policies by the United States that have affected support for refugee organisations, Uganda continues to successfully manage large numbers of refugees, something South Sudan greatly admires.
“Our country is also receiving a huge number of refugees from Sudan. In the region, Uganda has the best practice. So, we have come here as a commission from South Sudan to learn the good practice of Uganda on how to manage refugees. We thank Uganda who made it possible for us to visit this transit and to see the best practice,” Dabi noted.
Rodger Gnepa, Head of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Sub-Office in Mbarara and overseer of the Nyakabande Transit Centre, confirmed that Uganda continues to respond to the refugee influx from the DRC. However, he acknowledged the challenges, especially limited resources and reduced international funding due to new U.S. policies by the Trump administration.
“As of now, 6,000 plus people are staying in this place. Challenges; as we are going through a difficult period of time in regard to resources, our funding was affected by the new policies of the US administration, and particularly at this transit centre, our main challenge is space. We are quickly looking at the extension of this centre,” Gnepa said.
Assistant Commissioner from the Office of the Prime Minister, Assimwe Darglous, noted that Uganda has received over 63,000 refugees since January 2025. Of these, Nyakabande Transit Centre alone has received more than 27,000 refugees from the DRC, driven by escalating violence in the country’s eastern provinces.
Darglous added that on Tuesday alone, Kisoro received 2,000 new refugees from the DRC. To manage the numbers, ongoing transfers to other transit centres are being conducted to make room for new arrivals.
“The trends have changed in the last two months or so. We used to receive over 5o people per day, but now we receive averagely 400 people per day.”
He also noted that the centre has registered some deaths from malaria and pneumonia related illnesses, which has forced them to carry out intense tests for new arrivals.
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